


Snowflake's Passage, First story (Scary Things)

by dhapin



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, New Mutants, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-04-19 07:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 50,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4738199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dhapin/pseuds/dhapin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Been doing some thinking about Illyana's journey that she took in pursuit of her soul.  She spent years doing it, yet we only have a few panels in the relauched new Mutants that briefly touched upon it.  Some of my snowflake on ice vignettes touch upon aspects of that journey, but no real stories exist about it anywhere.   </p><p>Decided to try my hand at it.  Major crossover writing opportunity as Illyana traverses space and time.  I suppose this is the sequel to the story Mosh Pit.  First story is going to be an Anita Blake vampire hunter crossover.  </p><p>As always looking for feedback.  And I might add an opportunity for you to suggest something on this ongoing set of stories.</p><p>Note the Anita Blake story actually starts on chapter 2.  Chap 1 is kind of a short story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Part 1a: Prelude to what was to come**

 

A light dusting of snow was falling. Fate was busy doing what Fate does; in this case hanging up the laundry to dry.

 

The three Norm witches were outside of their cottage hanging up the weekly laundry. They were:

 

Urd, a young woman. Maker of the threads

Verdande, middle aged. Weaver of the threads

Skuld, aged crone. Cutter of the threads.

 

Skuld was tutting about the weather and expressing concern over the bed sheets.

 

Where was the cottage? Different mythos's have it in different places. Some have it at the world tree. Others place it in far off remote localities, approachable only after great trials. For some it might just be that house with the three odd ladies at the end of the block. The cottage was where it was supposed to be, leave it at that.

 

She came walking up the path as if she had manifested out of the very snow itself. A woman child, blond as the sun was bright, deep blue eyes that reflected the twilight sky, and a shadow that was dark as midnight.

 

Verdande greeted her, her voice partial slurred from cloths pins. _"Hello daughter, child of no woman"._

_"Greetings Ladies"_ replied the sun haired woman child. _"I've started upon a path and it lead me here. Might I pause with you for a moment before going on my way"?_

_"You may child"_ grumbled Skuld who was still distressed about her sheets. _"Although such courtesies are not necessary. We know why you've come"._

_"You do"?_ The blond stated with some distress. _"I had hoped it would be a surprise"._

_"We are an incarnation of fate dear"_ Urd stated. _"Surprises are rare for ones such as ourselves"._

_"We're a bit busy child"_ Urd continued. _"Don't mean to hurry you but please ask your questions so we can finish with the laundry. Remember you only get three"._

The woman child had a puzzled expression. _"I have no questions for you, at least not at this time. Perhaps at the end of the journey I might trouble you for some answers but not now"._  
  


_"You don't have any questions?"_ Urd asked. Now it was her turn to look puzzled.   Behind her Verdande dropped the cloths pins from her mouth in surprise and Skuld dropped one of the pillow cases.

 

 _"Well, I suppose I have one but I don't think it counts against the three"_ replied the sun haired one.

 

 _"I knew it"_ Skuld answered while exchanging glances with the two others. For a second there they thought things were not as they were to be. _"Ask child and we will let you know before we answer"._

 

 _"Do you like chocolate?"_ was her question.The three ladies froze in shock. A sudden gust of wind took the opportunity scatter the laundry about the yard.

 

 

**Part 1b: Ruined laundry and other cosmic catastrophes**

 

The golden haired one had left and returned to walking her path. Urd, Verdande, Skuld were sitting around the kitchen table.

 

Things were amiss.

Things were not right.

She had not asked expected questions.

She was not on the expected path.

 

Well, things were not completely amiss. As the three Ladies discussed the event ( **The** **Event** as they were later to call it) they were partaking of the gift. The chocolate gift, or gifts in this case.

 

 _"You know we shouldn't be eating this"_ Skuld proclaimed while eating the rest of her raspberry chocolate truffle (third one in as many minutes).

_"Yes, fate is not supposed to get gifts"_ Verdande declared as she looked for more of those dark chocolate coconut creams (Mmmmmm).

 

Urd declared nothing, as her mouth was too full to speak.

 

 _"How did this occur"_ Verdande wondered as she waved her right hand and the cottage faded away to show the tapestry.  

 

The tapestry.

Existence itself revealed.

The full flow of time, starting on the left where time began and ending on the right representing the now.

 

Urd picked up a knitting needle and threw it at the tapestry. The, now chocolate stained, needle did not cut or break any threads, instead it just slipped between the threads showing where the weave had gone off course as it were.

 

Skuld walked over to the tapestry to examine the threads. _"It's at the bridge. She was supposed to stop when she reached her limits. She didn't"._

_"What happened"_ Urd inquired. She had finally swallowed, but was already unwrapping another Godiva bar (70% coco solids).

 

_"She didn't stop. No safety at all. Put everything into it and more. And when she lost control of it she still didn't stop until it completely fried her. That was not supposed to happen"._

Verdande mused upon the weave. _"Those with her abilities are always hard to pin down. Knots are tricky with them, always coming undone"._

 

 _"I think it's sweet. Such a nice gesture by her"_ Urd stated while chewing slowly upon the unwrapped bar.

 

 _"For whom, her friend or us"_ Skuld grumpily replied.

 

 _"Both I guess"_ Urd answer. _"They should have made an exception after such a sacrifice"._

 

 _"Their accountants deerie, not a smidgeon of romance or imagination in the lot of them. Lazy too. Just wanted to avoid all the paper work was all that they were probably thinking"_ Skuld concluded. _"Idiots. They should have kicked the decision upstairs"._

_"If they thought they were avoiding work then they're in for a very unpleasant surprise"_ Verdande added.

 

 _"Should we do something about it"_ Urd inquired with a mischievous grin.

 

 _"Why"_ Verdande and Skuld both replied. _"Not our job. They made the mess. They get to pick up the pieces once she's done"._

 

Skuld was still examining the threads. " _She going to cause all kinds of problems isn't she"?_

Urd got a faraway look in her eye _"Yes. I think she is"._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't know who Anita Blake is. She is a zombie rising vampire hunter written by Laurell K Hamilton. Interesting premise that actual works quite well, it helps that that author is very skilled. 
> 
> For those who don't know who Illyana Rasputin is (likely as I somehow doubt that many Anita readers collect X-Men comics) she is a member of X-Men comics and former member of the New Mutant comics. I will say no more about Illyana then that, which should be Ok as this story is from Anita's perspective not Illyanas. And of course I'm trying to write in the Author's style.
> 
> I figure this takes place after the Blue Moon book, for those who are Anita Blake fans. 
> 
> Song credit is to Creedence Clearwater Revival and bad moon rising for various chapter titles.

**Part 2: I see a bad moon rising, I see trouble on the way, I see earthquakes and lightning, I see bad times today**

 

November and December are always a slow time in the zombie rising business. We work franticly in October due to the surge of demand that culminates in the last week of Halloween. Then business gets dropped like a chunk of decayed flesh until after New Years. Guess raising a dead relative for Thanksgiving or Christmas is just not in; thank God for small favors. I don't care how good Grandma made that special fudge, I'll guarantee you'll never eat fudge again if you bring zombie Grandma home for the holidays.

 

I don't do such raisings anymore. Just lots and lots of additional trauma for folks no mater how much they want it. But every year there are a few who want it done and are willing to pay. Easy work for other animators at Animators Inc, but those jobs are not for me. I really enjoy the slow time after the October rush, as much as my talent will let me.

 

Tonight's solitary job had been simple. Legal case. Raise a dead accountant, by the name of Brian Zand, who's family was currently part of a series of civil cases involving embezzlement. Not that I had heard of the case before, but you end up knowing a whole bunch of trivial details when involved in such raising. Anyway, the raising was easy, ridiculously easy, as he had only been dead for less then a year. Didn't even need to kill a chicken, just a few drops of my blood. The officers of the court were there, and lawyers from both sides. The plaintiffs were paying for the raising. Went without saying that the estate's lawyer was not happy with the whole shebang as, from both the questions and the zombies answers, it was very apparent that Brian had helped himself to a nice pile from his clients.

 

Worse, from my perspective, was that he had apparently spent it all on his wife's cancer treatments. Irony was that she ended up living and he croaks from a stress induced heart attack. Now the victims were suing the estate to reclaim what was stolen from them. Bummer for the widow and two kids. Sounded like the evidence was quite the slam dunk on what appeared to be an open and shut case.

 

I hate it when there is no real bad guy. Just different circles of victims. Tends to put me in one of my dark moods. Ok, darker moods. I'd been grumpy all day and now felt worse. I felt... well squished or something, like I, and everything around me, was being gently pressed down upon. I take the pill so it wasn't PMS or some other Lady issues. That's what my stepmom calls them, Lady issues.

 

I had put Mr. Zand back in his grave and all the other court participants had left. Gee, there is just something about a cemetery at night that gives most folks the willies. Me, I found it rather peacefully. Quiet. It was a cold and chilly St. Louis night with just a few scattered snowflakes falling. The dusting of snow over the dark grounds gave it a kind of Ansell Adam's black and white photo look. I was within what was left of my circle of power, now dormant, but still holding some unused juice due to the ease of the raising.

 

One of my main cuties, Micah, was over by the car, giving me some quiet time. Funny how well he could read me and my moods. Then she appeared and it was if the whole sky got heavy and decided to push down and make it hard to breath. The power broiling off her took the air right out of my lungs and the power spread over the cemetery like a heavy weight. It tasted of hate, death, and anguish.

 

There was a sudden gust of wind blowing a few snowflakes and she just materialized about twenty feet away walking towards me. For a fraction of a second I thought she was a ghost, some soul not yet put to rest or departed. But she was no ghostly apparition, she was way too solid.

 

I was simultaneously aware of three things.

 

 **One**. I could feel Micah suddenly tense up. He could sense/see her as well. He started sprinting towards me, and her. She was between me and Micah.

 

 **Two**. She was beautiful in that way I oh so envied when I was younger, and secretly still do sometimes. Tall. Arian. Blond. Long hair with bangs. Thin in all the right places and looked like a generous C cup. Eyes so brilliantly blue you could cut sapphires from them. Young too, didn't look a day over nineteen in that I'm sorry miss I'll need to see some kind of ID please sort of way. She was dressed in casual jeans and a light green turtle necked shirt and sneakers. Way too underdressed for this kind of weather. I was bundled up oh so nice and toasty with a half full thermos of hot coffee at my feet.

 

 **Three:** She was not as she appeared. She was a demon. How did I know this? Well, some things you just know. That screaming sense of evil that fills the air like you're caught in a jet fighters exhaust. Where she stood I could see, with my Necromancy, a dual image. One of the girl and the other of a shimmering black void that just sucked the warmth and the life from the surroundings and made my eyes want to bleed. Combined with a chorus of off harmony agonized screams that was so loud that at first I was deafened to actual sound.

 

Demons are a deep and profound wrongness. This, coming from somebody who raises the dead and sleeps with vampires and weres, should give you a clue as to just how wrong they feel. Anti life was how one of my [Wiccan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiccan) friends once tried to describe them, although she had never actually encountered one (lucky her). I'd bumped into just a few in my time few times too many. And when I say bumped that means got out of the way. Way, way out of my league. Things like that I leave to the priests and pray that there's something living at the end of it all. Fingernails on a spiritual black board dipped in acid might be a good description, joined with a soundtrack of children being slaughtered.

 

Oh GOD! She was between me and Micah! One of the loves of my life was running at a demon.

 

I screamed for Micah to run while I re-invoked my circle of protection. Prayed he would listen to me, knew that he wouldn't. The heavy sky feeling abated as the circle was reestablished. I drew my Browning BDM from my shoulder holster, glad that I brought it that night, but held off firing for a moment. I mean demon right? Bullets don't have a great track record of success with such folk.

 

Micah was face down spread eagled. I could see, and feel, him struggling as if a powerful force was holding him down. The demon wasn't even looking at him, instead she just slowly walk right up to my circle, as if she was uncertain as to her footing, and looked at me. I keep my Browning pointed right where her heart would be, if she had one that is; remember demon here. She was mouthing some words at me but I couldn't hear. Couldn't hear anything over the voices screaming. The female voice screaming for her brother was particularly loud and terrifying, the voice sounded like a pack of wolves were tearing her apart. Come to think of it, they were all female voices, all of different ages.

 

She gave me the feeling that my gun wasn't making much of an impression with her. Again she mouthed words that I couldn't hear. Great. Now what? Do what? I knew that [Jean-Claude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_\(Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter_character\)) should be able to feel my utter terror. Which would mean that he, and others would converge on the location where they felt me to be last. Converge here, where the demon was.

 

Oh God. Where the demon was.

 

I couldn't communicate mind to mind with [Jean-Claude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_\(Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter_character\)) unless I dropped the circle. But if I drop the circle I would be dead if I was lucky, worse if I wasn't.

 

The demon looked... irritated, she was now pantomiming holding a phone and trying to talk. Sometimes you get so terrified and things have gotten so weird that you're beyond being surprised.

 

 _"What"_ I shouted. _"I can't hear you. The screaming is too loud"._

She stepped back in what looked like mild surprise. She looked around her as if searching for the screaming, then she closed her eyes and appeared to concentrate. The screaming declined in volume until it was just a mild background noise. Mild if you consider the sound of children in agony a mild distraction, I don't.

 

 _"Better"?_ The demon spoke. In English. She actually had a trace of an accent, sounded eastern Europeanish.

 

 _"No not better"!_ I remembered that reciting the bible was one of the recommended methods to ward off demons. I started to recite the Lord's Prayer over and over.

 

_"Our Father in heaven,_

_hallowed be your name._

_Your kingdom come,_

_your will be done,_

_on earth, as it is in heaven._

_Give us this day our daily bread,_

_and forgive us our debts,_

_as we also have forgiven our debtors._

_And lead us not into temptation,_

_but deliver us from evil"._

 

The demon appeared... well offended. I could feel the cross around my neck glow and she backed off a few steps. She ended up next to an old tombstone and sat down on it and stared at me. I continued to recite the Lord's Prayer while she spoke.

 

 _"Well. I see we're not starting off on the right foot"._ She scraped some snow off the tombstone and made a little snowball that she casually threw at my circle. It hissed and vanished in a puff of steam. She gave a melodramatic sigh, as only teenagers usually do, most adults grow out such theatrics, and continued. _"Really, this is not necessary Mrs. Blake. I simply wish to..."._ A pause and an attempt at a mischievous grin that was so not reassuring. _"Employ you. There's a zombie I need raised"._


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3: Don't go around tonight, Well it's bound to take your life, There's a bad moon on the rise.**

 

So not good. Trapped in my circle while a demon lurked just outside of it. Terrified for myself. Terrified for Micah. Terrified for others whom I just knew were going to show up.

 

The demon was still just sitting on the tombstone. The demon who had just offered to hire me. You ever have one of those days, or in this case nights, where you end up in some kind of Alice in wonderland existence? No? Well this was one for me. I paused momentary on reciting the Lord's Prayer.

 

_"I'm warning you, if a white rabbet shows up he's so dead"._

The demon just looked at me with a puzzled expression. Ok, so she's not a big [Lewis Carroll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll) fan. The demon made another little snow ball but just tossed from hand to hand.

 

_"Now what Mrs. Blake? You can't stay in there forever. I suppose I could try to pop your little bubble of protection"._

I suddenly felt like I was in a vice, power pressing in on all sides of my circle, then it let up.

 

 _"But that would be both rude and..."_ She tossed the snowball lightly into the air and caught it _"possibly dangerous for you. After all I wish you unharmed and functional"._

I just stared at her, gun aimed, and continued to recite the Lord's Prayer.

 

Another one of those melodramatic sighs. Damn, I hate it when a woman does that. So manipulative, if you're the right kind of woman.

 

_"This isn't going to end well Mrs. Blake if we continue this way. I literally can sit here forever and wait you out. Dawn doesn't mean anything to me. You're going to get rather... hungry and thirsty in there, not to mention icky and yucky as well when some bodily functions need to... well function"._

She put the snow ball down on top of the tombstone and produced a nail file from her left pocket. Bitch actually started doing her nails right in front of me while discussing my fate.

 

_"I suppose you're waiting for more of your... associates to show up. Well... that won't be good for everybody involved. Me. Them. You. You'll still be here when it's all done, and so will I. Remember, I do want to hire you; but them? Well I suppose if enough power shows up I'll be unable to keep a lid on the situation and things will get messy"._

 

Shit. I know a threat when one is given. I franticly thought while she continued.

 

_"Then there will be the police if this goes on long enough. Hostage situation. SWAT Team. Likely a long range sniper bullet. So messy and so... ineffective. Again leaving the two of us here, but now you're all upset, lots and lots of media coverage, and I've lost so many little... motivational opportunities"._

Shit. She's summing it up well. Disturbingly well.

 

 _"I suppose in the end they'll airlift in a bunch of priests and pry my ass off of this rock"._ She knocks the tombstone _"And send me packing, but where does that leave you? Well a lot more lonely I guess. And guilty. Lots and lots of nasty guilt. All because you put everybody at risk and caused everything to happen"._

She extended her right hand down while still looking at me. _"I suppose I could play with your beau over there"._

She raised her hand up and I could see Micah push himself to his hands and knees. She then pushed her hand down and he squashed back down.

 

_"To motivate you to drop your little circle, self sacrifice and all"._

Shit, she had my number, area code and all. I got ready to drop the circle.

 

_"But I really just want to hire you, raise the zombie, ask my questions, and go on my way. So how to get out of this little... misunderstanding without killing or harming you or yours"._

 

She got up and walked slowly back to my circle, as if she was fighting a head wind (I was still saying the Lord's Prayer).

 

_"So you're upset, scared, and threatened. Only one thing to do. Shoot me"._

 

Now she was talking my kind of sense, but really? Bullets on a demon?

 

_"It won't do anything, apart from making you feel a bit better, and demonstrate that really I'm trying to be reasonable here"._

I removed the clip from my gun and loaded the clip containing just some of Edward's special rounds. 9mm silver plate hollow points instead of copper plated rounds. Every second round a silver frangible; silver plate with silver compressed dust. The copper frangibles were brand named varmint grenades due to the sudden dumping of kinetic energy. Just an entry wound and then puff, bits everywhere. Plus, each bullet was individually blessed (I didn't even want to know how much that cost).  Mmmm some guys just know what to get a girl for her birthday.

 

I dropped the circle and felt her power was so heavy upon the area. Like she was too heavy for reality. I went to that special place I go to kill. All white and filled with static, but lately getting quieter. As I squeezed the trigger I noticed that for the first time I wasn't alone in the place I go to kill. She was there as well and she was smiling.

 

Three taps to the chest, the first round was a frangible; her heart now just a ruined mass of hamburger and her chest an open hole.

One round in the throat, spine shattered.

Double tap to the forehead, brains and bits of bone everywhere.

Another double tap to the chest just to be extra nasty.

 

Her body stumbles back, her upper torso just a bloody mass of meat. Her head hits the back of tombstone with a wet cracking sound and she crumples to the ground like a discarded sack of rice. Bits and pieces of her litter the ground. Yet her power is still here, I'm amazed I'm able to stand.

 

Then she stirs and sits up. Unharmed, although she's going to need a new shirt. I holster the gun, she's made her point, going to take way more then a 9mm to deal with her. She gets back up and sits once again on the tombstone. She waves her right hand and now the pressure subsides, her power now feels like a blast furnace with the door closed. Hot but hell contained for the moment. Micah is able to push himself up and get to his feet. He looks to me and I make little stay there hand signs. Smart man my Micah, he stays put; although I can feel him thinking about transforming into his animal.

 

_"There, happy"?_

 

_"No"._

_"I hope you're not going to pretend I can't hire you"?_

_"No, not for now. Not until I can come up with something to get rid of your demonic ass. What's the job and why me"?_

Funny, [Jean-Claude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_\(Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter_character\)) still hasn't tried to speak to me mind to mind. She must somehow be blocking that.

 

Now a look of uncertainty on her face, how odd. _"I need somebody raised so I can ask them a few questions. Their a bit old, that's why I need you"._

_"How old"?_ A sinking feeling in my stomach. I knew this was going to be bad but her answer astonished me.

 

_"Thirty five hundred years old"._

Oh God no. Not possible. Nothing that old can be raised, and even if it could the power required would be enormous. Only human deaths have that kind of power and to raise that kind of power would take a village.

 

_"Just kill me now. I won't do that. I don't care who you threaten to harm or kill. I'll just kill myself first"._

A sly grin on her face. _"I kind of thought you'd react that way. Good for you. It won't require any sacrifice but a pint of your blood. I'll... be the power source as it were for you to do the raising"._

Shit, hope can be a total bitch sometimes. _"And the location of the deceased"._

 

_"Egypt. He's currently stored in a back room in the museum of antiquities"._

 

She raised a hand as I started to protest. _"I know where his grave is so the plan is to get the mummy, stick it back in the sarcophagus he was buried in, and let you do your thing"._

Alice was definitely down the rabbit hole and falling fast. It was going to get worse.

 

_"And the location"?_

 

She answered, and yes it got worse _. "_ _The great Pyramid of Khufo, the museum has miss identified the mummy they stuck on a storage shelf"._

She giggled. You have not seen disturbing until you've felt a demon giggle. _"Khufu would be so pissed about that. The indignity of it all"._


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figured that if Illyana wanted to raise a zombie, and needed Anita's help, then the person would have to have been dead a long time. 
> 
> Oh, after more thought on the timeline I've decided it takes place shortly after the book Cerulean Sins.

**Part 4: I hear hurricanes a blowing, I know the end is coming soon, I fear rivers over flowing, I hear the voice of rage and ruin.**

Egypt.

 

Great Pyramid.

 

Largest necropolis know to man, literally millions of people were buried there at one time. Animators are not only banned from Cairo, that is when their not being lynched in general, but from Egypt itself. Just such a bad idea having that many dead around an animator with so much ancient and slumbering magic, regardless of how old the dead were.

 

_“Ordinarily I’d be saying that there would be all kind of transportation problems, not to mention access to the body and the Pyramid but I somehow suspect that you've taken care of that as well”_

 

 _“Yep. Easy in. Easy out”_ she stated with a slight smirk.

 

I rubbed my eyes _"And the obvious difficulties"?_

She started counting of points on her fingers as she laid out her plan.

 

_"Let's see. I've already had a... brief chat with the new Master of the Cairo. He has agreed that this affair is none of his business and will not interfere regardless of who I bring along for this little chore"._

New? It’s not like I’m tied into the vampire grapevine on who’s who; but I suspected whomever the new master was, they were very new. I could only imagine how that chat went. The word brief to describe it did not pertain well for the other party. I found myself ok with that, having met way too many unpleasant Master's of a city lately.

 

_"Transportation is easy. I will meet with whom you decided to take and... well we'll be there in a twinkling of an eye. Due to the time zone shift I expect you to want to leave just after dusk on the assumption that you'll want to take one or more vampires"._

 

Good assumption. And a few weres as well, but no need to let her know who quite yet.

 

_"I will have already grabbed Khufu and put him in the sarcophagus that's in the center of the Pyramid so he will be ready when we arrive. Security will have been disabled so there will be no nasty recordings of this event to hound you. When done I'll bring you and yours back and our paths will part"._

I realized an obvious and potentially nasty point. _"I can't raise him if he's an animator. We come back badly, the whole killer zombie thing"._ Somehow I didn't think that was of much concern to her.

 

_"Yes, he might. Depends on how his abilities expressed themselves here. Either way this will not be of concern. We will be deep within a million tons of rock and, if he proves to be uncontrollable, then he will be destroyed; either by you or by me. I suppose you should bring some additional incendiary capabilities just to reassure yourself”._

 

She continued _"As to your pay I suppose you will want to draw up a contract or something. We can meet either tonight or tomorrow at your office to go over the little things once you've... settled down a bit"._

_"Umm..."_ I said as I grasped for some reason to delay. _"I've never raised somebody that did not understand the language I'm speaking"._

_"Should not be an issue. Khufu was quite conversant in English the last time we spoke"._

Really? A thirty five hundred year old Egyptian spoke English and she'd met him before? There is way more to this story.

Damn I hate it when somebody has everything just so nailed down, everything in this context being me. _"Well, talk about being prepared. Aren't you just the good little girl scout. How long have you been planning this"?_

 

Ahhh, a bit more intel on our mystery demonic blond. _"For the last week or so, ever since I got here and determined what happened to Khufu._ _Never did the whole scouting thing, but... always did like the cookies"._

 

Only one major stumbling block _"And your ability to serve as a power source"?_

 

" _Hmm. I suggest we... touch hands and see. You might want to be holding your beau's hand first thought. I suspect it will be rather unsettling"._

So not encouraging. I gestured for Micah to come over. He warily approached while keeping a close eye on our visitor. I held out my left hand and he took it, his power enveloped me like a warm furry blanket. I braced myself and held out my right hand palm up. She walked over, looked down on me (great yet another powerful female who is taller then me, why can't they be shorter for once?) and gently pressed three fingers into my palm, nothing happened.

 

_"Ready"?_

_"No, but do it"._

At first a trickle, like my palm was itching. Then... it was like a red hot inferno was just beyond my grasp, a flaming kind of power that promised conflagrations to come. The power beginning to flow into me and it was both a rush and a horror. The power was hot and spicy but now the screaming was back at full volume and I hurt in a way I'd never felt before. Hurt like bad things were being done to me, not just to my body but to my soul. As this happened I felt my link with Jean-Claude reestablish and a thought slipped into my mind _(Ma petite you are safe... or not)_ as he felt what I felt. I felt both my vampire markings and my necromancy respond to this flaming power while at the same time I felt my animals flee from it.

 

And she had heard Jean-Claude as well. A pair of blue eyes narrowing in surprise and suspicion, a hint of dismissal and warning, a thought _(mind your manners vampire)_ and then the link was broken between me and her.

 

I had jerked by hand back and the flow of power had stopped, and with it my connection to Jean-Claude as well; but now I felt a bit of her power flickering around me and Micah. I could feel my animals flinching, afraid of the fire; but my icy cold necromancy had enjoyed the flames, liked it, wanted more. The screaming went back to the background murmur.

 

I had a taste of her now; and so did Micah and I assumed Jean-Claude. Her power was strong alright. Scary strong. Vampire counsel strong. The Mother of darkness was stronger, an ocean of night against the screaming burning, but she had made her point as to her ability to provide a source of power that was compatible with the raising of the dead.

 

The grin was gone from her face replaced with a cold apprising look. Apparently either the presence of Jean-Claude had surprised her, or the ease of my necromancy accepting her power, or both. Then one word from her.

 

_"Satisfied"?_

 

 _"Not until you're gone"_ was my curt reply. Hey, I just don't do cowering well. _"What should I call you? I assume you have a name"._

_"Hmm"._ A look of abstract thought. _"Names have power and the rules here are quite specific about such things. Call me... Childe, with an E"._

 

I needed some time to think and discuss this with folks who I desperately hoped knew more about this then I did.

 

_"Ok Childe with an E, meet in my office at... call it 10:30am tomorrow and we'll sign the contract. Pay is in advance. I'd name a price but I suspect they you'll be telling me the price"._

Can't believe I just said I'd sign a contract with a demon, I am so going to have to write that contract. Going to have to make sure everybody is cleared out by 10am. So do not want her around the other animators.

 

 _"Works for me"_ was her reply. _"Hmm, now what to do while I wait? I'd ask if you knew of any good dance clubs but..."._

A hint of disapproval in her eyes. Did I just get dissed from a demon?  
  


_"I don't think we frequent the same kind of clubs. Ick"._

She'd just slightly stuck her tongue slightly out in distaste while making a face, like a seventeen year old thinking about her parents having sex. I didn't know what to say. I mean, what do you do when some of your personal practices gross out a demon? So not making me feel good about my self.

 

 _"I know"_ she suddenly said with a smile that did not make me feel good. _"Been forever since I've been to a circus"._

Oh shit.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curious if Anita Blake fans think I'm doing a good job. Let me know!

**Part 5: Hope you got your things together. Hope you are quite prepared to die. Looks like we're in for nasty weather. One eye is taken for an eye.**

 

With that she just faded away as another little gust of snowflakes blew by.

 

Shit, shit, shit. I knew a threat when I heard one.

 

At least with her departure Jean-Claude was able to reach my mind again.

 

( _Ma petite how you manage to meet such interesting people for one so young. Sigh... Just how much trouble are we in?)._

_(Big time)._ I shared what had happened _. (We need to talk. I'll meet you in the catacombs at the circus. Micah and I are on our way. She said she was going to the circus so we may have a hostage situation or a hostile take over. She can apparently teleport or something so she’s probably already there)._

_(She is. Her power can be felt. But it's reined in. She has just now walked through the main gate. I'm sending word now that she is to be watched but not confronted)._

_(Be careful)._ I ended the mind to mind conversation with Jean-Claude and turned to Micah.

 

He was unhurt, thank God. We looked at each other for few seconds and then hugged tightly.

 

 _“What the hell was that”?_ He whispered in my ear as we hugged.

 

 _“Demon”_ was my reply. _“Strong one too, scary strong. And that screaming...”._ I gave a little shudder, yes it was girly. So what, I had cause.

 

Micah stopped nuzzling by hair and drew his head back. _“What screaming”?_

 

 _“You didn’t hear the choir of girls screaming their lungs out?”_ I asked.

 

_“No. Just you yelling and talking and shooting while she just talked. But there was her smell. The smell of an Alpha, an angry Alpha. She’s used to getting her own way. Any beta weres are going to be very submissive around her once they get a whiff of her. Even the Alphas are going to… well have problems based upon her level of power. It’s in a were’s nature to submit to the stronger and as you said she’s strong”._

Micah had a reflective expression as he remembered her scent. _“Funny, she kind of smelled like wolf, but off, way off”._

After a few more seconds of hugging and touching for comfort we ran back my jeep. Micah drove while I made a few phone calls.

 

First was Marianne, my psychic friend turned Wiccan witch; she was on speed dial. I quickly outlined what had happened and could hear the concern and disbelief in her voice.

 

_“A demon? Are you really sure? I mean…. You’re alive and this demon has a job for you? And then she went to the circus? This is so not making any sense”._

_“I know. I know”_ I replied. _“This … demon is not acting like any of the few demons I’ve met. They always were either possessing somebody or were in some monstrous form. Not some blond girl wearing jeans and doing her nails_ (although I had to say her form was rather monstrous from my family insecurities perspective) _. But she oh so felt exactly like a demon. The sense of evil, cruelty, and viciousness just filled the air. Plus she claimed to be a demon and her ability to recover from the kind of damage I did lends quite a bit of strength to the argument”._

_“Ok”_ Marianne replied _. “Let's accept that she’s a demon. Sounds like you’re planning on taking the job”._

 

“For now” I replied. _“She really did make one of those offers you can’t refuse. Trust me when I say if she wanted something from your coven then your offer would be just as hard to refuse”._

_“Yes”_ Marianne slowly responded _. “So worldly. So very specific. So very very odd. I mean Khufu”?_

_“Yea, Khufu. I’m as stumped as you. Any demon insight here from the land of Wiccan”?_

_“Only some. We stay away from such entities if we can. The Christen churches consider them fallen angle, minions of Satan. The Wiccan view is that they are malignant and evil entities that may have once been good but has chosen the paths of evil. Some evil and vile Wiccan have historically had such creatures as a kind of familiar or servant. They were said to lend great power and knowledge. Inevitable the evil Wiccans make a mistake and the creatures would kill them. In Christen teachings drag their souls to hell, in Wiccan beliefs they then became what they had summoned”._

_“Has anybody in your Coven dealt with such creatures before”?_

Marianne didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and then kind of replied.

 

_“I haven’t, but there are some who have dealt with… some problems in the past. I’ll give them a call and see what they might know or if they can help”._

Hmm, secrets. Well secrets are ok. I’ve got more then a few myself. I trusted Marianne and her coven to not leave me hanging.

 

_“Thanks Marianne. I owe you big time. Please call back as soon as you learn something. I’m really on tight timeline here, likely deliberately by her so as to limit my options”._

_“Anita, do you think she chose her form to just get under your skin”?_

_“I really hope not. Because if she did then she knows way too much about me”._

I hung up the phone, pondered for a second and then make a second call. The recipient answered after a few rings. Listened to my story, and agreed to be here by lunch tomorrow.

 

With that I reached out to Jean-Claude to get an update ( _How bad is it?_ ).

 

He answered my thought inquiry ( _Bad Ma petite, very bad. She is_ …). He did not complete his answer just a sense of horror.

 

( _What? What?! Answer me Jean-Claude! Oh God has she taken Asher hostage?_ )

 

( _She is Ma petite… Eating a funnel cake and watching the clown jugglers.)_

I paused. I could feel Jean-Claude’s humor. ( _She’s what!??_ ) I thought.

_(Yes a funnel cake. I shudder at your American sense of culinary achievement. A demon she must indeed be.)_

He could sense my annoyment at his little joke _. (Ha ha so funny. I don’t recall you complaining when you asked me to eat one so you could sense the taste. As I recall you thought it was completely over the top and extraordinary at the time. Sooo, American was how you described it. What has she really done?)_

_(I kid you not Ma petite. She came in and bought a ticket for the next show. Purchased some balloons for a group of children, got a funnel cake with strawberries and cream, and is now watching the clowns. If only all of our enemies acted as such.)_

_(Well… Ok I guess. Balloons? This is… different.)_

_(Oh, there is one little detail. She has no problem or fear looking into the eyes of vampires. So far none have tried to… exert their will as it were. I fear what might occur if one were to try.)_

_(Who’s the ring master tonight?)_

_(Meng Die)_

Asian master class female vampire. Didn’t like me much. Liked to dress in a skin tight leather ring master costume that was quite dominatrix below the waist. If she’d been human than she’d need to shave the nether regains ever time she wore it. I hadn’t worked up the courage to ask if she needed to shave as a vampire. Just something’s I didn’t want to know.

 

( _Ma Petite I’d like to meet with her after the show. I believe we need to make a strong showing. I’ve requested Richard join us, he agreed after I explained she smelt of wolf. I’ve requested the King of the wererats join us as well. Please let Micah know that he presence is also asked for._ )

 

( _Why on earth do you want to do that Jean-Claude?)_

_(I fear I must. I shall explain once you are here. Let us just say that Childe has been making an impression with others as well)_

_(Others? Other Master’s of a city? Weres? Or… Crap, the counsel)._

_(Oui Ma petite. All of the above I believe. We shall talk once you are here)._

 

I felt Jean-Claude’s mind draw away. I relayed what had been discussed with Micah. We were still 30 minutes away from the Circus. Damn I wanted a cup of coffee, which made me realize my thermos was still back in the graveyard. Shit. This was shaping up to be one of those nights.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6: The scariest show on earth**

 

The Circus.

 

Part haunted house, part carnival, part side show.

 

Home of the freaks and monsters. I mean really, giant clown statues with fangs on top of the building illuminated by search lights? A most deliberate play at trying to make the unreal and terrifying just an evening thrill under the big top. See the monsters, thrill to the terror, watch zombies rise! And eat your fill of corndogs and cotton candy while you’re at it.

 

Yea, the Circus was popular. The place was always packed to overflowing the whole month of October.   Still kept wondering why people kept bringing their kids though. But I guess I knew that the monsters were not only real, but they really did want to eat you.  

 

We drove behind the Circus to the employee, something that always gives me a slight chuckle. Always found it hard to imagine monsters commuting. But, to be fair, the Circus did employ some humans as well. After all, you don’t need dark powers to make cotton candy. As we drove past the front I noticed that the Circus was rather extra busy for a Thursday night.

 

We parked and hurried inside. Bobby Lee, one of our wererat guards met us and guided me to one of the Circuses back rooms. The circus was in reality a very large warehouse which held a big top tent for the shows and a permanent carnival. There were other small out of the way structures in the warehouse, one of which held the conference room I was lead to. It was one of the conference rooms that was done up in a formal style for situations where Jean-Claude would great and meet people that he did not want to, or have to, meet in the catacombs that were beneath the Circus.

 

Elegant leather chairs and couches were scattered about the room, elaborate throw rugs, and curtains on the wall, this time they were blue and gold. In truth, a leftover from a private party held by Los Angeles Lakers, they had been in town last week. In short the room was setup like a really big high end living room. Hmm, it had been a nice party.

 

Jean-Claude, Asher, and Damian (my vampire to call, still embarrassed about that) were there sitting in some of the chairs. They rose as we walked in. I gave Damian a hug, Asher a kiss, and Jean-Claude both a hug and a kiss. Jean-Claude then spoke.

 

_“Ma petite. Greetings Leopard king”._

Jean-Claude was getting formal. Never a good sign.

 

 _“So what’s the big news”?_ Yea straight and to the point, that’s me.

 

 _“I would prefer to wait until Richard and Rafael are here. I wish to only go over the… details once as it were._ _Narcissus_ (werehyena king) _has also been invited but he begs off due to some difficulties”._

Made sense, but left me waiting and I hate waiting. Plus I wanted coffee. Lots and lots of wonderful coffee. I was about to get up and go search some out (yea the circus had a Starbucks stand) when the conference room door opened and a refreshment cart was wheeled in by one of the guards. Soft drinks, beer, three bottles of wine, some nibbles, and the elixir itself; coffee. Hmmm coffee. I made myself a nice mug with cream and sugar.

 

Jean-Claude had once, just once, suggested I try some tea for a change. A suggestion he never made again after I got done pulling a gun on him and threatening everybody in the room, or so he claims. I don’t really remember such an event so it has to be him kidding, right? Anyway Jean-Claude had taken to having a different type of coffee stocked every other week, kind of a nice surprise as it were. This time it was some Honduras medium roast and hmmm it was tasty.

 

Micah grabbed a coke. I’d noticed most weres never drank diet sodas. Their metabolism ran hotter as it were and they needed calories to burn. Me? I can't stand diet sodas. Yuck on the taste.

 

We discussed a few small things and Asher of course got a bit snotty over something. In oh so many ways Asher was high maintenance. Always insecure, moody. And beautiful, oh so beautiful in that jaw dropping way that left me sometimes stunned and missing a bunch of IQ points just looking upon him.

Rafael, the leader of the wererats, arrived with two guards and we all rose again and did a brief meet and greet. Just as we were about to sit down again Richard arrived, head of the werewolves, with Jamil and Shang-Da, his two personal bodyguards. We all tensed up, things were tense between the rest of us and Richard. Tense because Richard was still not dealing well with what he was. He hated the monsters which of course meant he hated himself. After all he was one of the strongest weres in the city.

 

His hair was beginning to grow back, he had hacked it off a few weeks ago. I felt for Richard but there was no help I could provide. He hated the monsters and in oh so many ways he felt I was the biggest monster in the room, an opinion I shared at times. Hmm wonder what his opinion would be after meeting Childe?

 

I was not surprised that Richard did not take anything from the refreshment cart. Just another form of rejection.

 

Jean-Claude began.

 

_“The counsel has communicated with me”._

The counsel being the vampire counsel, based in France. They set the rules by which vampire society functioned. Most vampires obeyed the rules as the one’s that did not tended to suffer from rather lethal problems. Only some really powerful vampires were outside of their rules, outside because frankly they were so powerful they scared the counsel and their actions were not sufficiently detrimental to vampire interests to warrant their attempted removal. I knew one such vampire in New Mexico, and yea… she was way way scary. Likely a pen pal with Childe I thought nastily.

 

_“This… demon, whom has told Ma petite to call her Childe, was first noticed a few days ago in_ _Cairo_ _. She, or it, for one does not truly know about such creatures, apparently approached the Master of the city with a request. The details of the request are unknown. The survivors claim she met with the Master as he held court. The doors closed. There was some passage of time. Then female screams rang out for quite some time, which somewhat bothered the external guards as the room was supposed to be quite soundproof. But then a multitude of screaming began as if a great slaughter was happening. There was a great shaking at the doors as if all that were within was pushing and clawing to get out, but some force held the doors shut. The guards, both were and vampire, attempted to also open the doors but they were held closed by some force”._

_“A great roaring could be heard within, as if a great beast was loose. There was also a massive crashing sound as a stone pillar was knocked over and a small piece of the ceiling collapsed”._

 

Jean-Claude paused and cleared his throat and then continued.

 

_“The former master of Cairo was of a line that today would be called German. He was a vampire of great power and age, originally from the time of Charlemagne. He had been the Master of Cairo for almost a hundred years. His court was not large, but it was not small either. Vampires and weres from Lion, Hyena, and Cobra were members; his animals to call were Hyena and Cobra”._

_“In the words of Ma petite, he could be said to punch above his weight class. He had no human or were servant to call; yet wielded power that arguably made him a contender for a counsel seat, yet he was not a sourdre da sang; he was not the head of a line. Many thought that much of his power came from magical practices. Unsavory magical practices. I met him some centauries ago. At that time he could feed off of pain as well as blood”. He was not of a… pleasant demeanor then and I assume he had only grown worse. His court had a reputation for extreme cruelty ”._

Asher injected _. “Bella found him to be a boor and interested in… practices she found distasteful”._

Wow, the vampire queen of sluts actually found his fetishes unpleasant. That has got to rate a truly massive oh ick.

 

Jean-Claude continued.

_“The doors were able to be opened at last and… well I have an image from the new Master of Cairo that I would share with you all if you permit”._

We all nodded our acceptance while Richard first tensed up and then ask _“Why should I”?_

_“As you have been told, she supposedly smells of wolf, yet the scent is off, wrong. There is no scent in the memory image, but having seen it I believe it will help us, and you, assess her better. To see with your own eyes, as it were, what she did, what she is capable of, what is currently walking our lands”._

Richard so did not want to do this, but he nodded his head at last.

 

I lowered my shields to permit Jean-Claude to send the image. I felt Richard do the same. I assume the others did as well.

 

It was more of a movie and less of an image.

 

It began with faded yellow two stone doors. Massive and closed. They appeared to be limestone or some such stone covered in hieroglyphics. The doors have massive shiny brass handles to allow you to pull them open, and I do mean pull. The doors looked like a kind of defense, you needed were or vampire strength to tug those doors open. The atrium before the doors was lit with flicking torchlight, how corny.   I mean it looked right out of a bad monster film plot; like the doors were going to open and the mummy would walk the earth again.

 

The doors were shut and I could see two hefty partially transformed werehyenas franticly pulling on the doors, along with one werelion and a vampire. I assume the soon to be new Master of Cairo was standing in front of the doors, I could see there was a sword in his right hand (Sword? What is this, the seventeenth century? So few of the really old ones appear to want to learn to use modern firearms. Which was ok by me. I like the baddies to be at a disadvantage).

 

Suddenly whatever force was holding the doors closed relaxed and the doors ground open with a stone on stone rasping sound. As the doors slowly opened the first thing I saw was Childe. There was no light in the room beyond. She was standing in front of the doors and the light revealed her in stages as the door opened. The first thing you saw was that golden blond hair and then the head, neck, torso, you get the picture.

 

The torchlight fell on her as if the light was defining her shape, what was in darkness could not be seen but somehow I felt it was some other form. She was disheveled in that her hair was a mess and her clothing, which was some odd full body suit of yellow and black spandex that formed some kind of stylized X, was quite torn and bloodied, really bloodied. She had a wild look in her eyes and was panting heavily. And she had a fresh vampire wound on her neck. Looked like whoever had been feeding on her had almost torn out half her throat, yet the wound was not bleeding and was visibly healing in front of us.

 

The soon to be new Master was shouting at Childe in Germen. I know Germen so I was able to catch most of what he was saying. He kept wanting to know what she was, where was the Master of the city, and what had happened that had severed his link to the Master.

 

As the doors continued to open the interior was slowly reveled. The décor was in keeping with the doors. Looked like some ancient Egyptian temple with a throne at one end. A throne with the back broken off. There was a wooden T set up on one side of the throne with chains to bind the arms and feet. The chains were there but nothing was on the T apart from a whole bunch of blood right were somebody’s neck would be if they were chained to the T. There were stone pillars, small versions of the ones you see in an ancient Greek temple, these were about five feet wide and thirty feet tall. One was knocked over, the closest one to the T. Great gouges were cut into the stone walls, as if clawed hands four feet wide had flailed about.

 

There was blood everywhere. The walls, the ceiling, the floor. It looked like an utter slaughter, missing only one detail. No bodies. Not a one. And Childe’s mouth was bloody.

 

Her arms were at her sides, the fingers on her hands spread apart and curved, like she had been using them as claws. Her eyes suddenly focused and stared into the new Master’s eyes. I swear they glowed red and she snarled something in an unknown language. And I mean snarled, mouth wide, teeth bared. I noticed her incisors were longer then when she has met with me.

 

Her right fist clenched and suddenly the soon to be new Master of Cairo was sucking pavement, just like Micah had been back in the graveyard. With that the image ended.

 

My first response? Fuck, where are the bodies?

Jean-Claude concluded the story.

_“She then declared the strongest surviving vampire to be the Master of the City and informed him that she would be conducting some business with the pyramids outside of Cairo and that the site was now off limits to all vampires. If anybody interfered she would kill every last vampire in Cairo. Oh, and if a were interfered then their clan would be exterminated as well”._

Rafael summed it up well.

_“Shit, the perra ate them”._ (Perra is bitch for those who don't speak Spanish).

Richard pointed out some obvious points for those who missed the highlights.  


_“After apparently being munched on herself. Serves them right”._ Nice sentiments. Boo to the monsters. But just maybe Childe was the bigger monster.

 

Jean-Claude answered while giving a tired shrug.

 

_“We do not know that Childe ate them as such. She could have simply made the bodies vanish, a talent she has already demonstrated. However, something cut those groves. Something roared. Something slaughtered all of them. And the root of that something is currently under the big tent watching the show and eating popcorn”._

We all started to converse and inject opinions and conclusions while Jean-Claude held up his hand for silence.

 

_There is more my friends. I suggest you hold your tongues for but a moment more while I share the remaining details”._

We quieted down and Jean-Claude continued.

_“Upon being informed the counsel was disquieted and concerned. Such a power loose did not sit well with them. At that time nobody knew of her ability to move from location to location. The counsel was not sure if they should attempt to contact her to apologize or to declare war”._

_“Her local was unknown for two nights and a day. The second day after the slaughter the counsel awoke to find that their archives had been attacked. While they slept, it is believed, Childe had attacked the keepers of records. Most survived but they have no recollection as to what happened. They were… mind rolled as it were. What we do know is that she was in the archives for hours before the counsel awoke, and several hours after that before the counsel could gather sufficient resources to mount an assault as they needed to wait for sundown”._

_“There was some confusion in the assault as the ability to see in the dark was apparently nullified in some way; causing utter chaos. Most of the injured were actually hurt by their own side. Bella and the Master of Beasts alone reached the archives, the Traveler was blocked in some fashion, to find a great force, one that they could not see, dwelling within. There was a test of wills, of power, and the force faded away and the blinding darkness left with it. It was found that the archives had been searched. Much was strewn about, but it is thought that the search was centered on the practicing of magics, natures of the living dead, the raising of the dead, and those who raise the dead”._

_“It is not known that Childe did this, I suppose we can ask, but a note was found nailed to a desk with a dagger. It informed the counsel that the assaulter was now done with them and that they should, and I quote, let it go. If the counsel wanted a fight then the assaulter would oblige and she would randomly drag half of the counsel to greet the dawn as a warning to the surviving half”._

I chuckled at the warning and said _“Good threat. Probably caused all kinds of problems on the counsel reaching any kind of consensus”._

Jean-Claude darkly chuckled as well _. “Yes Ma petite, it did. The only conclusion reached was that the counsel would come to the assistance of any counsel member attacked by the nameless one”._

Richard gave that conclusion his own interpretation. A good interpretation. Maybe he really was beginning to understand how the world really worked verse how he wished it would work.

 

_“The counsel will defend itself, everybody else is on their own for now”._

Jean-Claude looked at Richard with some slight surprise at how well he had grasped the situation.

 

_“Oui Richard, we are on our own”._


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having a bit of fun with this story. Are you? If so then please leave a comment.

**Part 7: Things in the darkness.**

 

A lot of discussion ensued. Her level of power was greater then anybody had ever encountered. The mean part of me thought that it was nice to hear that the counsel was running scared; always fun to see the bullies getting what they deserve. But in this case the baddie that had them freaked out was now in our neck of the woods so not so fun anymore.

 

Our brief conclusions were:

 

An order of execution was right out. Never was really an option. Kind of hard to execute something that apparently just won’t stay dead and is not impressed by bullets.

 

A plus was that the America legal system did not recognize demons as people so killing was ok so long as you could figure out how and convince that authorities that a demon was involved. Demons cleared the red tape like nothing else.

 

Oh, and I let the group know about the screams I could hear but Micah did not. Hmm, I asked a question.

_“Asher, Jean-Claude, Damian. You are by far the oldest of us. Have you ever encountered such a… creature before”?_

They exchanged glances. _“No Ma petite, over the centuries we have seen many… things. One hates calling a demon a common thing, for they are not, but never such a one as her”._

Asher at that point decided to give me one of those smoldering looks that make things clench inside me. A reminder that the _ardeur_ had not yet been feed tonight and I had been planning a rendezvous with both Jean-Claude and Asher. Richard saw the look as well and I could feel him begin to get angry (great, just great).

 

Jean-Claude held up a hand. _“The performance is over and my invitation has been delivered. I am informed she is being escorted this way”._

 

Yep, she was coming all right. I could hear the sound of female screaming and it was drawing closer, that and the feeling of utter wrongness and evil. I both felt and saw the others tense up, Richard deeply breathing in the air, and I assume her scent, with only his nose.

 

The figure of Childe appeared in the doorway escorted by two guards who were behind her. She was still dressed in the same casual jeans and a light green turtle necked shirt and sneakers she had been wearing in the graveyard. She also had a half eaten bag of popcorn. She felt strong and her power was hot, but it was contained. She spoke as she surveyed the room.

 

_“Yes? You rang oh Master of the City”._

Great. Sarcasm. Suddenly I had an idea of what dealing with me must be like.

 

Jean-Claude showed his usual diplomatic graces as he spoke while we all rose.

 

_“Greetings Childe. I can’t say I bid you welcome but we would like a moment to converse with you”._

 

I felt her power mildly unfold and flow about the room like the smoke trail from an extinguished candle or lightly burning cigarette. It flickered about the room lightly tasting everybody. Her gaze also flickered from person to person as this happened while she named those she looked upon. Her tone was not insulting or dismissive, just a neutral tone as if she was rattling off a shopping list.

 

 _Vampire_                                   (Asher, one of my boyfriends)

 _Master vampire_                       (Jean-Claude, one of my boyfriends)

 _Old and weak vampire_             (Damian, my vampire to call, wants to be a boyfriend)

 _Little rats_                                  (Rafael’s guards)

 _Big rat_                                     (Rafael, local rat king, not a boyfriend, just a friend)

 _Big cat_                                     (Micah, local leopard king, one of my boyfriends)

 _Necromancer and… Cat_          (Me, she said the word Cat oddly, like with some nostalgia)

 _Little woofs_                              (Richards guards, ut-oh, woof not wolves)

 _Big woof_                         (Richard, so not good, fighting words, ex boyfriend).

 

Richard and the guards growled at being called woofs and not wolves. I don’t know if she knew, but there are werewolves and weredogs and the two did not get along well. Calling a wolf a woof was slang for being a mutt, a lesser creature; or so the wolves thought of themselves. Kind of like the N word for a werewolve.

 

Childe stepped into the room and growled back. A soft but deep growl, like what a big dog does to a little annoying dog. Again an insulting action. I could feel Richard’s anger grow. I noticed Childe had an oh so not nice little smile. I was suddenly struck with the idea that she had problems with werewolves for some reason, and that she had a good grasp on werewolf social interaction.

 

Richard replied to the challenge, his power spiked and came off of him in hot waves.

 

_“I am Ulric of the Throonos Rokke Clan and we take no such insults”._

 

She replied while finding an empty seat and flopping down in it, again just like a teenager would do.

 

 _“Relax fuzzy. Just twisting your tail. Wanted to see how… dominant you were”._ Said with a smirk as she then ate some popcorn.

Interesting. She had just gotten here and already was making the meeting go off track. This was deliberate. She was testing us, all of us. She was seeing what we’d do. I noticed she’d selected a chair that put her back to a wall with nobody behind her. Good to know that at least she thought of us as some kind of a threat.

 

Richard growled again but then sat back down. Thankfully she did not growl back. We all sat down and I sighed with a quiet sense of relief. You know it’s tense when I find myself trying to come up with a way to settle things down, usually I'm the one poking the monster with the pointy stick.

 

Childe looked around the room again, I somehow got the sense she was searching for something, looking for some hidden danger. She made a statement while tossing some popcorn in her mouth and noisily chewing.

_“I hope this isn’t gong to be another rape by fang and claw. The last one didn’t go so well for those involved and I’m better prepared for such… attempts now. I will warn you but once. Attempt me such harm and I will end you all, regardless of the value I place in Mrs. Blake”._

As she spoke her scent filled the room. Her scent and her rage, cold rage. Wolfish, but different. Burnt and smoky. With strong tones of bitterness and sulfur. If I was getting this with my human nose I could only imaging what the weres and vampires were able to sense. I saw all the weres go still, like an animal does when it realizes that a predator is in the same room as them. A bigger predator, one that preys upon creatures such as they. The stillness of an animal that is trying not to be noticed. I also saw a flash of recognition in Damian’s eyes.

 

Rape. Shit. The source of the rage was obvious now.

 

One, how the hell do you rape a demon? I mean aren’t demons the ones who do the raping? Demons are all about violation, not being violated.

 

Two, everybody reacts differently to rape. You feel defiled. You tend to internalize it. Some women, and men, break down. Some become withdrawn. Childe, I could sense, likely fell into the rageaholic end of the pool.

 

Three, I suddenly felt bad for her. Which made no sense. Demon remember. Demons do bad bad things, things of nightmares. But demons aren’t supposed to slouch in a chair and eat popcorn. Yea, I was confused. Jean-Claude answered for us.

 

_“We do not mean you harm at such time Childe, but these are our lands and your… interest in Anita…. Well, we are concerned for her, and for ourselves as well”._

Childe answered with a sniff of disregard. Like our concerns were of no value or were irrational.

_“I have a job for Mrs. Blake. Once the job is done I shall depart”._

A growled whisper from Richard _. “Will you”?_

She turned her head to look directly upon Richard and replied.

 

 _“Yes… wolf._ (Thank God for wolf and not woof) _I will. There is nothing of value to me in this remote nook other then that which drew me here. I tried to polite at first and got… grief as my reward. I was a fool and should have known better. Apparently only power is respected here so…”_

Her power flowed out of her like a fast moving volcanic ash cloud and filled the room. We were not pressed to the floor but we all struggled to breath, apart from the vampires that is as they only draw breath to speak. Everybody’s power flared under such a heavy touch, but they were contained, constrained, while only Childe’s power filled the room. God I expected the walls to crack there was so much power.

 

_“I dislike this world and its rules. So confining, so judgmental. It’s… distasteful being forced into forms other then my choosing. So yes I will depart. Unless…”_

 

That same snarling look that greeted the new Master of Cairo.

 

_“Somebody gives me cause to linger. I don’t think you’d like it if you gave me cause to linger”._

She stood up, nobody else did. Either the weres were still frozen into immobility or her power was keeping them pinned. Don’t know about the vampires. Me? I was still trying to digest the concept of a demon being raped.

 

She looked me over carefully, and the glanced at Jean-Claude and then back to me.

 

_“See you tomorrow morning Mrs. Blake. Oh, please feed well before we depart for Cairo. Don’t want any avoidable… difficulties”._

 

With that she faded away again; taking the screams and her power with her.

 

All the weres exchanged glances, frightened glances. Something about that scent had them spooked; and these were men who don’t scare easily. Damian, who was almost a thousand years old, moistened his lips and spoke. A statement that defined the scent and brought no comfort.

 

_“Not just demon, dragon as well”._


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8: Dragon**

 

Shit, dragon.

 

The apex predator of apex predators. Extinct now.

 

Dragons had been omnivores, they would eat anything; but preferred meat and supposedly magical meat. No wonder the weres were freaked out. Yea dragons were extinct, but those dragons had been animals. This was a demon with an animal form. At least we now knew what monster had destroyed the old Master of Cairo and his court. Destroyed and probably ate them as well.

 

Jean-Claude spoke.

_“And you know this how Damian”?_

_“I have smelled that scent once, when I was yet living. It was a young beast, immature. They were almost gone by then as only the old ones breed and the old one’s were the ones that brought the most valor to kill; so... few new dragons. A half ton of charging horse and knight all focused upon a steel tipped lance ends even a dragon if one’s aim is right; and one is lucky”._

Damian continued.

_“They were after all animals, and intelligence is able to undo the mightiest animal”._

 

Richard spoke.

 

_“That scent, it was like a genetic memory. One of danger. Death. Never fight, just flight”._

 

He shivered. All the weres shivered.

 

_“I felt like… like meat. Just meat. Shit. That is one scary monster, just cold hunger and hot death”._

Rafael spoke.

 

_“Now I know what the wereswans feel like when they are in a room with us. Just meat for the slaughter”._

Micah spoke for the first time. _“Did any of you get a mental impression? An image”?_

“Yea”Rafael said. _“I was in a cave, as a rat, there were thousands of us. All fleeing in terror. Something in the dark was coming. Something hungry. Then there was flame. Hot. Scorching. Fur shriveling. And then a giant maw that scooped up a horde of dead and burnt rats and gulped us down”._

Micah shared his vision. _“I was in leopard form. I was in a tree hiding. Something new was in the jungle. Something that was hunting everything. I was high in a tree next to a rock outcropping when the rock opened an eye. It had somehow blended in. Then a massive jaw that bit through the tree limb I was on and consumed me in one gulp”._

 

Richard stared at the two of them, and then also decided to share. _“Running. I, and the pack were running across the plains. Running as if we were being hunted. Then… Then a form swooped down, seized a wolf with a rear claw and soared into the air. The wolf… was torn in half with the first bite, then gone with the second bit. Then the dragon swooped down for more. For me”._

Dominance. Childe had somehow placed visions of them all as prey into their minds. Suddenly I wasn’t sure how much the weres were going to be able to help.

 

Jean-Claude injected.

 

_“She is odd. Demon yes, but unlike any that has been felt before. Dragon apparently but we truly don’t yet know, and hopefully never will. Her rage is both new and yet tastes.... old. I suspect she is many things. Many scary things, and I fear we have no choice. We can only aid Anita, but we cannot shield her from this thing. I am sorry Ma petite, helpless is bitter and I find myself, and I fear us… impotent”._

 

I sat thinking furiously, then asked a question.

 

_“Jean-Claude, what did she mean by the phrase rape by fang and by claw? It sounded like a ritual”._

 

Jean-Claude gave one of his more expressive sighs.

 

_“Some Master vampires would feed upon a magic entity with their court present and participating in the feeding. Fang denotes how the vampires would feed, claw denotes how the weres would feed. Both blood and flesh Ma petite. Blood and flesh. Such feedings are of course involuntary, rape. But I have never heard of a demon ever being… preyed upon in such a way. I suspect that her shielding of her power resulted in the now departed Master underestimating her, but I do not understand how the ritual was able to progress so far having felt her power. Maybe her strength had been constrained for some reason”?_

I added a thought.

_“Or maybe there is a reason she does not want to express her power”?_

 

Richard then asked a question.

 

_“Why is a demon looking like and acting like an angry America teenager? Or did Dante get the description of Hell wrong and it’s really an American mall”?_

Asher slowly stroked one side of his jaw, the unscarred side, while he spoke.

 

_“Might that be the unpleasant form this demon finds itself imprisoned in”?_

 

I frowned in thought and then replied.

 

_“I don’t think so. Her mannerisms are perfect. I suppose it could be an act, but if so it’s a really good act. I got the impression she was referring to some other forms”._

 

I returned to a prior topic.

 

_“If she was too weak or constrained to prevent the rape by… You know, I don’t like the phrase. Let’s just call it the ritual. If she was too weak or constrained to stop the ritual then how was she able to become so powerful to end it”?_

 

The room chewed on that for a few moments and then Richard had a possible answer.

 

_“Maybe, she either does not like her beast or did not know she had one. Even for those weres who can control the change, extreme physical distress can bring the transformation”._

Jean-Claude followed up.

 

_“The ritual might not have worked per the Master of Cairo’s plans. I must wonder if feeding upon her caused her own power level as it were to be elevated. It is possible she fed upon the feeding itself? Or the act of the feeding”?_

Asher added his input.

 

 _“Some vampires can feed upon lust_ (A look at Jean-Claude), _some upon fear, others pain. Might a demon feed upon the very act of evil, thus making it stronger”?_

Richard presented a conclusion.

_“If that is true, then all they did was plug her into a power cord. God, the counsel would have been a feast to her. If she can eat evil then the counsel is lucky it still exists”._

Jean-Claude urged a bit of caution.

 

_“Hypothesis my friends, Hypothesis. We know not of her abilities”._

Hmm, not a bad set of ideas though.

 

A thought that had been bugging me resurfaced. I looked around the room. Apart from the Hyena king all of the strongest weres and vampires were in this room. Oh so conveniently gathered and now confronted with her might. Gathered. Gathered by… Jean-Claude. I looked at Jean-Claude.

 

_“She rolled us, or more specifically you Jean-Claude. Somehow she influenced you to call this meeting, some form of vampire mind trick, well I guess in this case a demon mind trick”._

Jean-Claude gave me one of his blank stares as he thought upon my words.

 

 _“I am not sure how Ma petite. I only thought to gather us together after I realized that Childe looked like the image in creature in Cairo. But…”_ He tisked. _“It is possible but I do no know how. Until she strode into this room we had never met or communicated”._

 

More discussion ensued. The only conclusion being there were no conclusions.

 

Jean-Claude turned to me.

 

_“Ma petite, you will need assistance tomorrow night. Please share with us what part we might play in your aid”._

We spoke and planned for an hour and then called it a night. All the vampires and weres would be informed as to her description and to let us know if she was found.

 

Jean-Claude, Asher, and I then retired to feed some other hungers.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't feel like trying to write an Anita/Jean-Claude/Asher love scene; the real Anita Blake author has me beat on that. If you want an Illyana sex scene then I recommend my story Morning light which was written on a dare. Rather unique X-Men F/F pairing if I say so myself. Rather proud of it.

**Part 9: Things that go bump and grind in the night**

 

 

There was a phone ringing.

 

I groan and the warm cozy embrace of sleep recedes. What the heck is ringing? It's not my cell phone, it's... It's the phone next to Jean-Claude's bed, the right side end table. Funny it's always my cell phone, never the land line phone that goes off. This was a first.

 

I crawled across the now empty bed, empty that is except for me. Jean-Claude and Asher, being vampires, had left after I fell asleep. The blue silk sheets felt nice as I finally end up at the end of the bed where the phone is (yes it is a big big bed).  

 

 _"Hello?"_ I answered,

 

I could hear music on the other end of the line. Loud music. I assumed that Jean-Claude must either be having somebody call me or it was a wrong number. The clock over on the other end table informed me it was 1:38am, great just an hour or so of sleep. I so hoped this was not the police for once.

 

Lucky me. It wasn't.

 

 _"Miss Blake_ "? A male voice inquired. _"My name is Renaldo. I believe we've met once or twice. I serve our master Jean-Claude"._

 

Renaldo? Renaldo?  

 

Ah yes, met him at one of the greet and meets that Jean-Claude put on from time to time. Being the Master of a city meant that most, or all, of the vampires in the vicinity were sworn to the local Master. This, depending on the social behaviors of the Master in question, and the number of vampires, meant that many vampires who were just residents and not part of the local core rarely interacted with Jean-Claude _._ Jean-Claude would schedule meet and greets for these detached vampires as it were to keep track of them and any needs/problems they may have.

 

Being said Master's squeeze, ahem girlfriend, meant that Jean-Claude wanted me to attend as many as possible. Partial to show the flag, I was the executioner after all. Partially to remind everybody just what I looked like. And partial because Jean-Claude loved a party.

 

Renaldo had stuck in my mind due to his name and his appearance. He was a tall lankly Spaniard. Roughly a hundred and fifty years old, strong but not really powerful. I recalled he worked as a nightclub bouncer which would explain the music.

 

Master. Vampires were big on the whole stating the master thing. Tended to get grumpy when I wouldn't play along and talk about how I to served the Master.

 

 _"Yes"?_ I replied while becoming more awake (Yippee me. More awake). I could barely understand him over the music.

 

_"I work at the club Louder Then Hell and I was directed to report any sightings of the blond individual if seen. I believe she had been at this club for the last hour or two"._

Louder then hell. Well named. I didn't know that a phone was able to deliver this much bass. I could hear the lyrics to Paul McCartney's Live and let die, the band playing it was Guns and Roses.

 

When you were young and your heart was an open book

You used to say live and let live

(you know you did, you know you did you know you did)

But if this ever changing world in which we're living

Makes you give in and cry

 

Say live and let die

Live and let die

Live and let die

Live and let die

 

What does it matter to ya

When you got a job to do

You gotta do it well

You gotta give the other fellow hell

...

...

 

Heard very well as apparently the club must cater to the almost deaf. I sloughed through the conversation, with both of us having to often repeat what we said, yell actually.

 

_"I believe she had been dancing for awhile before I noticed her. I'm mostly by the doors as muscle, vampire strength and all that, but I never saw her enter the club"._

_"Had"?_

_"Yep, she's gone now. I called earlier but it was decided to let you sleep"._

Ok. Apparently my sweetie, or sweeties, decided to let me get at least some sleep.

 

_"What was she doing"?_

_"As I said. Dancing the whole time"._

_"Was she dancing with anybody"?_

_"Yea, you could kind of say she was. More descriptive would be to say that everybody in the club was trying to dance with her. Like moths to a flame. Guys and gals. Funny though. She wouldn't dance with any big men, i.e. muscled. And no blond woman as well"._

_"Ok"._ I filed away the little factoid as to dancing partner preferences.  

_"How would you describe her behavior"?_

_"Bit frantic on the dancing. I see that type every night, like their trying to forget life for a moment and just live in the present. Plus... well she kept changing partners after almost every song, sometimes in the middle of a song. Like she was looking or hunting for something or someone"._

Hunting. Not good. I so hoped we had not just seen a missing person case in the making. If so then from what I'd seen earlier the missing person would definitely remain missing.

 

_"How did she leave"?_

_"Just vanished. She was on the main floor dancing with, oh three or four people at the same time and then a body passed in front of me blocking my view for just an instant, and she was gone"._

_"Did she take anybody with her"?_

_"Not that I could tell. Funny, nobody on the dance floor appeared to notice. But the intensity of the club appeared to go down a few notches after that, almost like she took some of the energy with her"._

She likely did. If she was a vampire then I'd say she had somehow fed off of the crowd. Something some really powerful vampires could do. I could only assume demons could do the same.

 

That was about it. Renaldo and I yelled at each other a bit more as I fished for more information but nothing more was to be gleamed.

 

I hung up and went back to sleep, only to be awoken now by my cell phone. It was Marianne telling me that her Coven was on the road and would meet with me around noon. Great, just in time for my other guest to arrive as well. Nice to be liked.

 

Good to know that the Coven was willing to help, not so good to find out that they were very concerned (read terrified).

 

I went back to bed. Tomorrow night was gong to be busy and sleep is in its own way another form of food.

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Any feedback folks? Are you enjoying the story? If so then drop me a comment. 
> 
> Rather liked my use of the word woof being an derogatory slag term for werewolves. 
> 
> Anita Blake fans, am I capturing Anita well? Comments are gold for authors!

**Part 10: Morning rituals**

 

Burt, our former boss now turned office manager, did not want to vacate the premises. I ended up arguing with him for over fifteen minutes before he finally saw reason. Well, what he saw was all the other animators, and our day secretary, heading for the hills and he finally got it through his thick skull that this was not going to be a safe place to be.

                  

By 10am the place was empty, except for little old me. Amazing how many people just get it and leave when you tell them that a demon is planning on making a visit. I waited in my office for my unwanted guest as I finished crafting her contract.

 

I had gotten in early, 8am, so I could get to work on the contract and to sync up some details. My goal on the contract was to make sure that (A) my soul was safe, and (B) anybody with me was safe. Well, as safe as I could make the words state, reality was likely going to be a different story.

 

The digital clock on my wall announced 10:29am and I started to get antsy. A feeling of unease. Nobody last night had heard the background screaming that accompanied Childe, and nobody else had gotten that sense of utter horror that accompanies a demon. Wonder why? Was she that good at hiding it? If so, why could only I sense it?

 

10:30am and I started to hear that screaming again, soft but highly unpleasant. Then I heard the main office front door open and Childe's voice saying a questioning " _Hello?"_ to the empty room.

 

I took a deep breath and opened my office door. Screaming demon presence confronted me. Rather proud of myself in that I did not shut the door.

 

 _"Good morning Childe, we'll be using this office if you don't mind"._ Polite words. See I can refrain from just shooting at things. Burt would be so proud.

Childe was standing in the main office wearing a light pale green short sleeve shirt and a black leather jacket. She also had on a pair of thin blue jeans and sneakers. It was overcast and dreary cold outside so she was still way underdressed for the weather. Like she didn't, or couldn't, feel the cold or something.

 

She also had a black rolling carryon suitcase behind her.

 

_"Good Morning Miss Blake. I hope you slept well and are keeping up with your feedings"._

Hmm. Just how much does she know about me and my... issues with the _ardeur?_ Should I press? Since when did I stop being pushy? Well, since a demon walked in but... let's try pushing a little.

 

_"I've had breakfast if that's what you're referring to"._

Childe looked me up and down.

 

_"No Miss Blake, that's not what I'm referring to. Although I can see you have fed your... other appetites this morning as well. Please feed again before sundown. Tonight will be stressful and... likely interesting. Really don't think there will be time to take a break for a quickie as it were"._

Well that answered that. Apparently Childe could read me quite well, likely my aura.

 

I fell into that automatic routine one does when dealing with a client. Strength in routine as it were. It was either that or run away screaming, her presence was like salt on an open wound.

 

_"Can I get you a coffee or something"?_

_"No on the coffee, yuck"._ Proof that she was a demon right there, proof! _"But I'll take a cup of tea if you have it. Russian blend if there is any, otherwise any black or breakfast blend will do. No sugar or cream please"._

I walked over to the little community coffee pot and hot water area. Burt was a big believer in free coffee, tea, and drinks for the clients, less so on the freebies for the staff. But that was not an issue any more since the staff now owned the firm; rather like a partnership. I skipped the coffee cup that says (I'm a demon before coffee!), yes it was one of mine; and got the one with cute kittens on it. Turns out we have all kinds of tea packets so I actually found a Russian blend tea bag. I filled the cup with hot water, tossed in the tea bag, and gave her the cup. Then, I followed her into my office.

 

I got back behind my desk while Childe sat down in the seat facing the desk. She briefly glanced around the office with a look of slight interest, and then looked at me.

 

_"Your payment is in the suitcase. Cash and gold, bit heavy. I assume you'll have your vampire deal with it"._

Nice to know I'm getting paid, but not sure I really wanted to open the suitcase. Burt on the other hand would probably break a finger in his haste. I'll leave it to him to determine just how much we're getting paid.

 

Now what? Do I give her the contract to read and sign or try some small talk. Childe decided for me as she started the small talk.

 

 _"Hmm. Yours is the first grouping I've seen of Vampire and Were where it appears to be more of a team and less of a dictatorship. I could see that there is the usual angst and tension between various people in last nights little gathering"._ She smiled a slight smile that actually reached the eyes. _"Kind of reminds me of..."._ The smile vanished and the eyes went cold. Ice cold, and so did her tone _"Things that once were"._

 

Ok, not sure what that meant. Let's try a little probe. Since she knows show much about me let's show we know something about her.

 

_"How was the club"?_

 

_"Clubs. Went to a few. They were ok. I've found in my journey that I like dancing"._

 

Not a rise out of her. Just looked at me while she drank some tea, which kind of irritated me. Ok, I'm generally irritated, kind of a default mood. Decided to push really hard. Likely not a bright move on my part.

_"Not that I'm complaining, but shouldn't you be... well slaughtering folks and being on a general rampage. You are a demon after all"._

 

Childe looked at me with a stare of disregard and distain while she answered.

 

_"Yes... Yes you're right. I've been trying to figure out what this feeling is? An itch as it were and that nails it. A nice bloody rampage is just the thing to start the day. Please Miss Blake could you point me in the direction of the nearest large gathering of people, say a mall or a sporting event? If one is not handy then the nearest law enforcement facility will just have to due, or a hospital. Hospitals are always good"._

The sarcasm was thick. Real thick. Then it got worse.

 

_"Then I could create a giant pentagram with the blood and bodies of the slain and dance naked to summon the hordes of hell to consume all life on this frail little world. Geeze, you're as bad as Rahne"._

 

Ok, that was a bit over the top. Umm, who the heck is Rahne? Likely get just a nibble of information.

 

 _"Sorry about that"._ Wow I just apologized to a demon, now that's a first. _"I'm just unsettled by all of this"._

 

_"Understandable, but no need to be rude. After all I'm sure you don't go around randomly raising the dead Miss Blake"._

Now it was time for a cold stare from me.

_"Actually I do if I don't exercise my... abilities. For me it's use it actively or have it randomly raise the dead"._

_"Really"?_ Childe's cold expression vanished and was replaced by one of mild interest.

_"I guess that explains"_ Childe waved her left hand indicating the office. _"This"._

_"Yep, making lemonade out of lemons"._

 

 _"Well, I brought you a bunch of lemons then"._ She patted the suitcase as she spoke and then took a long slow drink of her tea while watching me.

 

We sat there looking at each other the silence. Then Childe spoke.

 

_"Miss Blake, I can see that you're just brimming with desire to ask me questions. So, for the sake of conversational curtsy I'll let you ask five questions before we continue. No promises that I'll actually answer the questions. In return I may or may not ask you a question for each of your questions"._

I sipped some coffee and then agreed. Not that I could trust the answers but talking always results in the chance of getting information. Silence does not.

My first question was easy. _"Why me"?_ Let's see how much detail I get.

 

Childe took another sip of tea before answering.

_"I find myself unable to raise the dead here. The... rules here for beings such as I forbid it. So I needed to find somebody else. Somebody like you. What I require done needs both skill and strength. My... research lead me to believe you were not only the most powerful living necromancer on this world, but that you were likely quite corrupt as well"._

 

Umm... Corrupt? Me? I started to protest.

 

Childe raised her right hand to hush me as she continued.

 

" _But this does not appear to be true. You are definitely the strongest of the three I've examined, but you appear to also have a very strong sense of ethics. Which, from what little I've seen of this world, speaks highly as how you've handle your power. This is also backed up by those I've questioned. I can only conclude that somebody does not like you very much and has colored some of the data in your file"._

Questioned? Nobody has said anything about anybody asking questions about me. Oh crap, the briefing from Jean-Claude said that the counsel found their servants mind rolled. She could have been talking to almost anybody and nobody would be the wiser if she simply had erased their memories afterwards. Have to wonder if she has the power to mind roll even Jean-Claude? Well she apparently did duke it out with the counsel so a yes on the power curve; which would explain last nights impromptu meeting called by Jean-Claude.

 

Child finished her answer.

 

_"You are quite aggressive and prone to violence. You also exhibit an extreme possessiveness in regard to what you consider to be yours and any ethical commitments you believe you have made. You don't like being pushed and love to push back. You are very committed to your friends and loved ones. And you are struggling with the ethical implications and impacts of your powers and your actions. I can respect all of that. You remind me of... a person I once knew. In summary I believe you are the best chance I have to raise Khufu and, as a bonus, I find you... interesting"._

 

Wonder who said bad things about me? Must be from the counsel's files. On the list of things you don't want to hear, the IRS wants you to answer a few questions, the police consider you a person of interest, and a demon finds you interesting; I'd pick the police and the IRS before the demon.

 

Childe then stated that she had no question for me at this time.

 

 _"Who is Rahne"?_ Let's see what that digs up.

 

A brief expression of irritation from Childe.

 

_"Rahne was... a female werewolf with whom I spent several years with. Very judgmental. Always accusing me of things I did not do or plan on doing. She had... issues with what I was, and with what she was, so I was a convenient outlet for her. Odd, in some ways she'd like it here, but she was very uptight about sex and nudity and would really not fit into were culture here. Likely drive her batty"._

Odd, sounded like some kind of childhood relationship. But that does not make sense. Demon's don't have childhoods. Likely tied in some way to her form. Helps explain why I get the impression last night that she didn't care for werewolves. Really need to talk to Marianne about this.

Again Childe indicated that she had no return question for me at this time.

 

_" Are you really a demon or just something that feels like a demon"?_

 

Childe answered with a cool emotionless tone.

_"Yes I'm a demon, in thought and deeds. But now I have a question for you. Would you like to be free of your bindings? The ones that tie you to your vampire and were? I can do that if you want. It would require your cooperation but I can cut the ties that bind as it were. Leaving all three of you free, but most importantly, leaving you free; although likely diminished in power"._

 

Crap. Interesting offer.

 

Part of me would love to be free of the marks. But more of me was now comfortable with them and the abilities they granted; other then the _ardeur_ that is.Really hated the _ardeur_. I liked being able to look vampires in the eye and not have to be concerned about being mind rolled. But consider the source of the offer. Demon offering to help? Naaa, I'll pass.

 

I politely declined. _"No thank you Childe"._

Two questions left. Let's bet on 00 and see where the roulette ball falls.

_"What happened at the vampire counsel when you raided their archives? I've heard second hand information about it, but I'd like to hear your side of the story"._

 

Childe smiled and sipped the last of her tea before answering.

 

_"After Cairo I needed more answers to how this world worked. I learned of the counsel from the new Master of Cairo, not that he remembers it"._

 

Ok, if she is being honest, then proof that she can mind roll vampires. Yikes.

 

_"I then ported to Paris the next morning and located two of the counsels' residences. More importantly, I located their joint archives. I returned the following morning and seized the archives from its guardians. Apparently ancient vampires like to keep most of the counsel's records on paper, I suppose they tend to not be very computer literate; but this made searching harder to do. So I enlisted the surviving staff to extract documents on the topics I was interested in"._

_"I wove a binding of darkness and obscurement around the locality as I had already learned that the really strong vampires would awaken way before the sun would set. Worked well, the first assault collapsed into chaos. One of the counsel members, the Traveler I believe he is called, attempted to posses one on the surviving archive staff members, but again I had already warded the site from him. By that time I had learned what I sought, you being one of the things by the way"._

_"Two counsel members penetrated to the heart of the archive, one I incapacitated. The other... tried to bind me to her but in the end she panicked as she found the attempted bindings being reversed as she had overstretched herself. The lesser cannot really bind the greater in such a way and if such bindings had completed... well she would have been mine, body and soul; not that I want a vampire servant. She retreated with her fallen companion and I left the counsel a brief message telling them to not interfere or..."._

Childe gave a cold smile.

 

I have a look that I give. The one that shows my inner monster, my sociopath part. Childe's look was less scary sociopath and more... well more predatory. Like the cat was not really interested in eating you at this time but if you made a bother then the cat would find time, and likely play with the food for a while. Somehow her look was scarier. Mine promised death and pain. Her's somehow promised something even worse.

 

_"I would take the time to randomly drag three of them into the dawn and I'd let the four remaining members vote on who the final one victim would be"._

Damn, she knows how to make a threat. So, according to her version the counsel did not actually drive her away.

 

Child now asked me a question.

 

_"What's it like for you? Being on of the monsters as it were"._

 

Damn she really does know way too much about me. Now I know she's been talking to folks close to me.

 

_"Scary. I scare myself with the ease in which I can kill. I... fear losing the me and waking up one day to find somebody who looks like me has taken my place. I've done things that had to be done. Greater good and all that. Still leaves me stained in a way that never quite washes clean. Something's you never get to fully return from after you do them. Worse, from many peoples perspective, is that I'd do most of the actions again even if I had a do over"._

 

Last question. Let's try a follow up.

_"Who do I remind you of"?_

Childe was silent for a while. Then she slowly answered.

 

_"Someone I once knew, she had issues rather similar to your own. She died. Badly. Made the wrong choices. I hope you choose better"._

Know a threat when I hear one. I can only assume Childe killed whomever this person was. Likely she refused do what Childe'd wanted done.

_"Enough small talk for now. Let's see your contract"._

I picked up the contract from my desk and gave it to her. It was almost an inch thick. The look on Childe's face was actually funny. Like she had never actually seen a contract before.

_"Umm"._ Childe looked confused. _"I think I'll need to take a bit of time to look this over"._

_"Please, take your time. I can get you more tea while you go over it. And, if you want, you can take it with you and we can delay tonight's activity until you're done reading it"._

A slightly exasperated look from her. _"No, I'll go over it now. Kind of on a schedule here"._

Another tidbit of information. Wonder what the schedule was?

 

Childe started to read the contract, and then finally started to skim it. She asked for a highlighter and started to highlight some sections. She also started to read some sections out loud and looked at me as if I was slightly nuts.

_"A pet clause"?_

_"Yes"_ I replied. _"I don't want you taking anybody that comes with me by declaring that they are not humans. If the weres transform then they fall under pets in the contract"._

Yea, that was one of my hasty additions. Dealing with a demon here remember.

 

_"And the part about this contract not involving your or anybody else's soul in any way"?_

_"Just wanted to make it crystal clear"._

_"Miss. Blake, I am signing your contract, not you signing mine"._

_"Oh, If I could have the contract back for a second"._

Childe handed back the contract, frankly looked slightly happy to be rid of it.

 

I quickly wrote in a new section about not dancing naked and summoning the hordes of hell and gave it back to her.

 

She examined the updated section and gave another teenage sigh. Ha! A point for me.

We continued to go over the contract for the next forty five minutes before Childe was done reading it. She looked quite exasperated.

 

_"You do realize that regardless of what this contract says, if you piss me off then nothing in this contract prevents me from doing what I want. I don't think this will end up in civil court as it were"._

 

_"Correct. But I'm also treating this as backup for the highest possible court"._

 

Childe gave me a puzzled look for a few seconds before she got my reference.

 

_"Miss Blake. For the record I have no interest in your soul or any soul on this remote and isolated little piece of creation. And in regards to the highest court... we're not currently talking at this time. Rather upset about some things"._

 

Interesting. She sounds a bit like a fallen angle now. Hmm, do they have teenage angles?

 

I got out a pen and gave it to her. _"If you agree with the contents then time to sign"._

 

Childe gave an exasperated teenage sigh again. I turned the pages and showed her where to sign.

 

 _"Sign here, sign here, print your name here, print, date and sign here, sign here... sign date and initial here, print and sign here, sign and date here...". S_ o on and so forth.

Yea, it was kind of like signing mortgage paperwork. Lots and lots of signatures. Animators Inc had been sued, but never successfully. Say what I want about Burt, he wrote good contracts.

 

After the signing Childe got up to go.

 

_"Where shall I meet up with you Mrs. Blake"?_

 

_"At my house, not that I want you there"._

As I expected, she did not ask for the address.

_"See you before dusk then. I'll go make sure the Egyptian arrangements are ready. Oh, and for the record. I don't need to dance, naked or otherwise, to summon the hordes of hell"._

With that she faded away again. Damn that's a good trick. Wonder if it can be learned?

 

I went through the contract looking at each signature. Childe was printed and signed every time. But the one spot for initialing had the letters INR.

 

Gotcha! Now just what did I get?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some transition stuff as I setup the trip to Egypt. Plus Anita learns more about Childe (or does she?).

**Part 11: Needles and haystacks**

 

Time for a little police work digging.

 

I liked my new spiffy status as a United States Federal Marshal. Before, crime scene access had been a privilege, not a right. Now... Now the local cops could not deny me access if it was supernatural, plus it made that whole little issue of state lines and jurisdiction kind of go away. Federal jurisdiction, not State or local, Federal.

 

Bonus was that there was now a whole Federal bureaucracy that would cheerfully engage in pissing contests with state and local agencies that did not want to cooperate. Also, orders of execution allowed me to cross state lines as needed without having to worry about different state laws on the subject. Plus, a nice shiny badge I got to wave around and shove in peoples faces if I wanted to. I was now member of the club as it were.

 

Negative was that Federal bureaucracy thing; meaning Forms. God I hated forms.

 

The Federal Marshals did not really know what to make of us. We were in a special branch after all. Legal assassins or killers was what most law enforcement personnel thought of us, and frankly they were right. Law enforcement is all about preventing crimes and bringing the bad guys to justice. Me, and those like me? Our job was to legally kill, simple as that; and I had the body count to prove it.

 

Once I have a legal order of execution from a Federal judge, then that's it. I can shoot your ass any time, anywhere and there is no review, no appeal. I can get dismissed, fired. But not prosecuted so long as I obey the order of execution. Moreover, said orders empower me to take jurisdiction over local law enforcement in the pursuit of the order of execution.

 

Having that kind of power gives me the willies. The reason for granting that kind of power also gives me the willies. The legal system is just not equipped to deal with vampires, weres, and magic using folks who won't follow the rules. What do you do when the defendant summons demons to eat the jury? Well if you're honest you decided to shoot his ass, and that's were I come in.

 

One nice benefit was access to law enforcement data bases. Now I didn't have to wait and hope someone would follow up on my suggestions. I could conduct the searches and/or put the request into the system myself.

 

So I went to the Federal building to conduct some brief research. Brief in that I only had a few hours before my visitors hit town and research takes time.

 

First there is the guard at the buildings entrance. Then you require special access to get to the thirteenth floor. Then two more guards stations, plus locked doors before you get to an honest to God vault door. Thumb and retina prints are required to open the door and there is a two man rule, meaning that two people must always be present in the room behind the vault door. If you are by yourself the one of the cleared guards escorts you into the room.

 

In the vault room you find state of the art computers tied into every federal and state law enforcement database. Just brimming with the ability to search and access data.

 

Right?

 

Right...

 

Let's get real. Yea the guard at the front desk is real, and there is a receptionist on the thirteenth floor behind a glass door that does require your badge to open. From there it mostly looks like any other law enforcement bullpen.

 

That special room? Well I think it was a cleaning supply closet at one time, and the door lock was just a simple four number entry code. Those state of the art computers I was talking about? Well there were two old Windows XP Gateway computers connected to a local printer, and a big white board. The Bat cave it wasn't.

 

But it sufficed. The big thing to query was the accumulation of all supernatural legal activity that the FBI and the Marshals accumulated and stuck into a database, plus some stuff from the State department and other, more spooky, agencies. Almost all of the data was entered by support staff, no need to waste your shooter's time on such activity.

 

What to look for? Supernatural crimes and criminal activity was in this database, not supernatural stuff in general. Bleeding statues of Christ would not be in here unless somebody was cut up or killed as well. Aunt Martha seeing a ghost? No. Aunt Martha being killed by a ghost? Yes.

 

I figured that whatever had allowed something like Childe to come into this world had to have been big. And no guarantee that it was in the good old US of A.

 

  1. Large number of deaths, say five or more. **AND/OR** massive destruction, **AND/OR** demonic blonds. **AND/OR** satanic activity; I was dealing with a demon after all. **AND/OR** in the last... oh three weeks. Childe appeared to be operating fast, not likely that she had taken a vacation or something.



 

A set of hits came up, larger then I'd hoped for. Great, what a wonderful world we live in.

 

First was in Africa, in the nation of Nigeria. Bleak, an entire village slain by some kind of fire creature that appeared to have been summoned in the heart the village by some local shaman; now dead from said fire creature. Village burnt, people burnt, local cows burnt. Creature apparently look off and or left. Possible, but no additional details.

 

Next was cheerful little mass killing in New York city. Pentagrams, dead homeless, and lots and lots of blood. No ideas as to who did it or why. But somebody was missing a finger.

 

I skimmed each query match for ten or so minutes reviewing the details and seeing if anything clicked as I drank coffee. One thing I liked about the Federal building was that had a great coffee kiosk on the main floor lobby. Beats normal cop coffee by a few dozen miles.

 

So went my next two plus hours. I'd have to leave soon to meet my visitors when a case caught my eye, happened fifteen days ago. I remembered reading about it briefly in the newspaper as I tend to not watch the TV news; I'm on it too much for my comfort.

 

Oregon, a small out of the way town called Happner. The report detailed the death of five children, four girls and one boy, all blond. The boy had been the brother of one of the girls (finger print match on missing persons). Some cult event had happened in a disused building in one of those aging old downtowns where most of the shops have closed. A disused three story office building with empty buildings on either side as well.

 

Interestingly, all three buildings were owned by the same group. The Church of the way and the path. Apparently a small cult that supposedly nobody in town was really aware of, even though some of the members had been local business men and woman; one of which had been a real-estate agent.

 

Key words, had been.

 

Not only were there five dead children. But there were eleven dead adults as well. The kids all apparently had been slain in some kind of sacrifice. You know the kind, from all the bad horror films you used to watch when you were young. Black draped room with a stone alter, candlesticks, and a bloody pentagram. The kids were all missing from the last two years, but no closer then two hundred miles from Happner. The dungeon, in the basement of the building, rather put paid on the idea that this group had been snatching kids for quite some time.

 

The kids were all on the alter, throats cut. The adults were scattered about the room, except for one individual who apparently had crawled out of the room and had died by the front door. They had all been sliced up. Limbs hacked off, bodies and heads no longer connected, massive slashing wounds and deep piercing thrusts. Sword work according to forensics, apparently by somebody who knew how to correctly handle a sword.

 

Blood leaking from underneath the front door had alarmed some morning pedestrian and they had called the cops.

 

Blood work had also reveled that each adult had been a werewolf (not yet released to the public).

 

Turns out that there was a Seven/Eleven on the corner. The late night clerk said that the power had gotten funny for a minute or so around 11:20pm. Lights flickering, brown out. Then back to normal. Nothing else noticed.

 

Apparently a satanic ritual, blonds, and werewolves.   Interesting, but not definitive. Unknown if the eleven dead adults had been all the members, local police had evidence that there might have been one or two additional members, now missing. Yet... Something about the brother and sister was scratching me as it were.

 

It was time to go. I briefly clicked though the set of photos that had been pulled from the store security system. People buying stuff, and a time stamp as to when, got to love security systems. I drained the last of my coffee and got up to go, one last click.

 

Nope, nothing.

 

Heck click one more time. Nope. Heck only ten more pages in the photo PDF. Clicked on the rest.

 

3:32am. Childe.

 

Bingo! Wearing a tan leather jacket and grey jeans. Buying a big gulp of some soda. Notes indicated that the clerk did not know this individual and had never seen her before or since.

 

I quickly rescanned more of the case details. There were five sacrifices, but the evidence showed six cells had been recently occupied. The hair samples that forensics had pulled from each cell had shown only one occupant; each occupant being blond. Only one set of hair samples did not match any of the victims and those samples were female long blond hair.

 

I plugged in my thumb drive and copied the contents of the case folder.

 

That made it... three massacres that Childe was now part of. First this one. Then Egypt, and then the counsel. Wondered if there were more? I would be willing to bet there was likely more, and that I had also just found her summoning site.

 

And werewolves had been involved. Childe apparently had a dislike or issues with werewolves. Plus she had spoken of an association with a girl names Rahne who had been a werewolf and they had not gotten along. I didn't buy that a demon had a childhood. But... I could buy that a demon might take over or consume a person and somehow associate that person's memories as their own. I quickly scanned the names of the adults; nope no Rahne.

 

Great, either Childe is a demon who thinks that she was once a girl, or a girl that now thinks she is a demon. Either way major dysfunctional issues. The little fact that she apparently had enough power to make the vampire counsel run scared made me think delusional demon instead of delusional girl.

 

Damn her timeline for tonight means I won't have any opportunity to go examine the site. Just too far away. Maybe I could call the Federal Marshal associated with the case after I meet with my visitors.

 

I hated how this compressed time schedule was constraining me; which was likely her plan.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working a bunch of hours so this rather limits my writing time.

**Part 12: Theories and plotting**

 

Another meet and greet. This time it was me, Marianne and her coven; all female by the way; and Edward; although I introduced him as Ted Forrester. For now Edward was in his ah shucks friendly Ted the Marshal routine; cowboy hat and all.

 

Hmm I've been a bit remise in describing myself up to know. My name is Anita Blake and I live out in the countryside of St Lewis, and I don't mean the suburbs. My closest neighbor is roughly a third of a mile away, which is good if your host to an endless stream of weres (God everybody seems to always end up on my doorstep).

 

Plus the local wereleopard clan (called a Pard) likes to hang out at my house because.

A) I'm the local leopard queen even though I don't shape shift. Yes I have the lycanthropy virus, but for some reason my necromancy and the vampire marks appear to prevent me from shifting.

B) I'm... well dating, ah heck, sleeping with the leopard king Micah Callahan. And by sleeping I do mean snoozing and a whole lot more.

C) I kind of inherited the Pard after killing the prior leopard king, who was a total sadistic bastard who was trying to kill me in a snuff film. The Pard was a small group made up of non dominates and they had become everybody's meat until I stepped in and said they were mine. Lots of the local weres did not like it but... well my body count kind of made that issue go away.

 

We were all in the living room having refreshment; little cakes with coffee and tea. Nathaniel was loving this, he got to play hostess. Nathaniel was one of the were leopards I inherited. He is approximately 5'6" with long mahogany auburn hair with lilac eyes. He sleeps with me but we don't have sex, at least not yet (Oh God I can't believe I just said that). Why the sleeping together? Well weres love to sleep together, like a giant puppy pile, and I'm not talking sex. Plus he helps me feed the _ardeur_ , which is kind of like sex but not; at least not always.

 

 _Arderu._ Hmm what is the _ardeur_ you ask?Well, so not proud of this... All vampires feed on blood. But... as a vampire grows older, and likely stronger, some of them gain the ability to feed off of other things. Anger, pain, terror... lust. Jean-Claude is such a vampire, meaning he can feed off of lust and sex and induce lust in another; the ability is called the _ardeur_. When I got the third vampire marking, out of a total of four; still have not taken the forth marking, I got that ability or curse. The _ardeur_ is not just the ability to feed, but the burning desire to feed. Resulting in my current predicament of having to have sex every twelve hours or so. So not happy about this; yea the sex is great but really dislike what the _ardeur_ can do if it is not fed.Well enough of my sex life for now, or so I hope.

 

Which brings us to me. I am a rather petite woman, say 5'3, of mixed German and Mexican heritage. I got curly long blank hair with rather pale skin and scars scattered over my body; yea a few too many close encounters with vampires and weres. Somewhat busty, especially when I wear a push up bra, which I mostly wear so I can easily get to my shoulder holster gun; mostly.

 

My house is of average size for the Midwest. Basement (where Damian lived), first level, and a second story with a few bedrooms. The main floor had a really big master bathroom, so love the enormous sunken tub. Plus attached garage. Call it 3000 square feet. I moved out here to kind of try to be more private and to keep the neighbors healthy.

 

So just who just is this Edward or Ted as he goes by in public?

 

Edward was just like me in so many ways. Former bounty hunter now turned Federal Marshal executioner. He was also quite the sociopath (sigh... again just like me sometimes although with Edward it's all the time) and kills with an icy cold, cold until you threatened his recently adapted family (rather long story about that), then it gets hot and personal. Edward the ice cold killer is terrifying. Edwards the enraged family man killer is way beyond terrifying.

 

What I did not explain to my other guests was that Ted was also an assassin for hire, specializing in hard to get targets. Hard to get meaning vampires and weres. He had stopped taking jobs on ordinary folks, no challenge in it. Edward liked the hunt, the harder the better. He likes the kill as well.

 

Some executioners get nicknames from the weres and vampires. I was the Executioner. Edward was Death. I had the larger legal body count. I was pretty sure Edward's body count far exceeded mine if you wanted to count those off the record kills.

 

If it ever came down to a fight between the two of us I'd bet on me of course, but the odds sucked. Edward really was that good, plus he had taught me a great deal of what I knew about fighting. Yea I was faster and stronger due to the vampire marks and the lycanthropy virus. Those abilities hadn't let any of his prior target survive so I'm just fine and dandy not having it put to the test

 

Hmm now we get to the Coven. They were from out of state.

 

The coven was lead by an elderly female by the name of Melisa. She was old and thin and grey and tended to always have an embittered expression. She doesn't really like me much. Didn't like what I did for a living; considered zombie raising to be an abuse of the art as it were. Wasn't big on the vampire executing either. Didn't like what I ate, didn't like how I dress. Didn't like... well you get the picture. Plus she was a militant vegetarian. You know the type, always explaining just how bad your food choices were and how superior she was because she was a vegetarian.

 

Melisa really knew her stuff though, she was the strongest human magic user I had ever met. And I was so glad she was here.

 

There were four other coven members other then Marianne and Melisa. Stacy, a pudgy middle aged white homemaker. Gwen an attractive thirty something black woman. Nancy another white woman, late twenties. And Beth, another back woman, in her early fifties. Yea they looked a bit frumpy. They wer also quite skilled in magic. Trust me when I say these were ladies you really didn't want to piss off.

 

I outlined what had happened and what I had learned from the Marshal's database. I also laid out my suspicions that Childe was either a delusional demon or a delusional girl.

 

Mitch commented about how she'd felt to him.

 

_"Were society is very alpha/beta based. Dominants, secondary's, and submissives. All weres give off a vib as it were. It's a combination of body posture and scent. She felt like a pack alpha member, but one at the apex of the pack. Very dominant, and you just somehow know that to challenge her is a really bad idea. That Alpha feeling is the strongest by far I've ever felt. Crosses were species boundaries, it's like she's a apex predator of apex predators. She smells angry, raging, full of hate. And her power hammered me flat into the ground without her even looking at me. It was like... her power was too big for here. She smelled a bit like wolf, but unlike any wolf I've ever smelled. Her scent alone at full flower appears to invoke submissive behaviors from other weres. I've never met her like and have no idea what she is"._

 

 _"Delusional demon"_ was Melisa curt answer.

 

She lit another cigarette before providing more details. Oh I forgot to mention Melisa smoked all the time, which usually pissed me off to no end. It was going to take days to get the smell of smoke out of my living room. But... considering the circumstances I'd gladly buy her a cartoon and help smoke them myself if it would help.

 

_"Seen it once before. Several decades ago. Happened to my... husband before he died. We had been kidnapped by a group of Satanists and they wanted some white magic witches as a sacrifice. Well... things went wrong. Really really wrong"._

 

Wow. Now I think I know why she's always looking pissed at life.

 

Melisa continued.

 

_"They raised a demon, but not the one they wanted. This one was... different. Stronger. Able to break their summoning bindings. It ended up somehow inhabiting the sacrificed body of my dead husband. Bob... No, that's not fair to call it Bob. Demon Bob thought of itself as Bob but retained its demon nature and power. It was... displeased that somebody wanted to harm his beloved wife. He butchered every single one of the bastards, which truthfully was just fine by me"._

_"My belief is that she's wearing the shape of one of the sacrifices. That the memories of the sacrifice victim are now part of the demon. Changing its motivations and altering its behaviors"._

Beloved? I had always gotten the impression that theirs had not been a happy marriage. I knew she was a widow, but the lack of pictures of her dead husband had made me think that she had not cared much for him. No, I'm not being nosy, us police detective types notice such lack of decorations when we're over at your house.

Melisa continued and her expression get very bitter, and yet there was something else in the expression. A hint of loss, of regret.

 

_"At first I just thought Bob had somehow returned, but over the following weeks I came to realize that... Bob was gone. Think of it like a zombie that has retained its memories and shape, but is now home to a demon. It thought of itself as Bob, but... it was still a demon and acted as a demon will"._

A soft whisper. _"Yet it was like Bob was still there as well, or so I thought, or deluded myself into believing. He... he never hurt me"._

Then she shook herself free of the recollections _._

_"In the end the coven and I had to kill and bind Demon Bob to stop him. He was... trying to make more like him. That's why we've come. Your Childe sounds just like Demon Bob, and if she is then she will go the same way as Demon Bob"._

 

Ted injected with his slow drawl _"If you don't mind my asking, how did you kill this demon"?_

Melisa answered with an expression of tired pain. _"We trapped him in a circle of power and then burnt him alive to drive out the demon, which we then bound into a crystal. Worked, but he was less powerful then this Childe appears to be, plus we had his true name"._

I asked with some confusion. _"How did you get the demon's name"?_

_"It was Bob damn it. Bob! It thought of itself as Bob and Bob it had become. Likely why she said to call her Childe, she apparently understands the importance of a true name for such bindings"._

 

Well fuck. Now I knew why she always looked pissed. Burning your husband alive has got to take a giant something out of you; and I suspect that Bob had died crying out his love to Melisa all the while. On the suck index I'd call that a nine point nine. Why not a ten? It can always get worse, that's why.

 

I asked question that was on my mind. _"Any idea how she teleports or whatever it is that she does"?_

 

The Coven looked at each other? That look that says I have no idea, do you have any ideas?

 

Melisa answered for the group.

 

_"No. We've never seen it or have heard about it. The level of power needed is staggering which makes me think that it is more of a demonic ability then an expression of power, although again we've never heard of any demon demonstrating such power. Possibly related to the demonic ability to pass into and out of our world. Which of course brings us to the question of why is she still here"?_

_"Bound to a physical form allows them to continue to remain"_ statedStacy. _"Otherwise demons are only supposed to remain for a limited time, or so is the accepted wisdom. But remaining is not the same as purpose. She doesn't appear interested in random mayhem or harm; that we know of, and wants Anita to raise Khufu of all people. Now why is that? Either the girl with whom she has merged with was obsessed with Egypt or long ago this demon had unfinished dealings with Khufu; I'd bet on the latter"._

 

Gwen gave us a quick summary about Khufu. Apparently she had been doing some research while they had been driving down here, plus her being was a high school ancient history teacher helped. She went into lecture mode.

 

_"We don't actually know that much about the reign of Khufu, it was 4500 years ago and records literally were written in stone back then; which allowed anyone with a chisel to erase bits of history. Khufu is, of course, famous for building the biggest pyramid at Giza. He reign was apparently a time of great changes in ancient Egypt. He reorganized the priesthoods and significantly altered funeral practices, creating the massive necropolis that is Giza today"._

_"Before his time only the nobility were in such cities of the dead. After his time everybody was buried in them. A practice that continued for several thousand years and actually still persists today with illegal burials on Giza. It's almost as if there is a cultural compulsion to bury the dead there"._

_"He was supposedly a man of great power, which we must take with a grain of salt as this is how many pharos are described. However Khufu like was significant. He appeared to have been a major warrior; described as fearless in battle. There are some theories this was in part due to magical protections that caused arrows to miss and spears to turn aside. Of course with such ruminations about magic there are stories that he had dealings with unworldly entities. Being a living god as it were, such practices were expected. Lots of remaining hieroglyphs show him smiting down various foes and communing with the Gods, but the inscriptions are rather light on any details. He reigned for over 60 years and supposedly died in his late eighties"._

_"My guess is that he had dealings with Childe. No idea why she would want him raised thought, unless it is some left over deal that he made. Hmm this might be tied to ancient Egyptian belief of returning from the dead, but zombies were never part of any know rituals. Zombies were considered... well zombies even back then. Not your dead returned but just an animated corpse. I suspect her questions will be very interesting"._

Nancy injected _"Not that he'll be able to answer any, unless she speaks ancient Egyptian, which considering her possible origins, she might"._

Betty now commented as well. _"We think she's constrained to a tight time table because her power is fading. Although we also think her power spikes for a while with every feeding. This gives us an opportunity as raising Khufu will likely deeply drain her. What we need to complete the enchantments of binding and containment is her true name or something close to her true name. Khufu should know such details, but not quite sure how you end up with the knowledge as there is no possible way he speaks English. That has to be a mangled memory of hers"._

 

Nathaniel returned from the kitchen with refills for the tea and coffee. He really did like playing hostess. He asked a question of Betty, and the group.

 

_"Why do you think that? We're already way off in left field with no map. I don't think you should just discard the idea that he speaks English. What if everything she's said is true"?_

 

Sometimes it takes the amateurs to point out that the experts may have blinders on. Half of the coven had expressions of dismissal, while the other half paused and had musing looks.

 

Ted drawled.

_"So all we need to do is trap her in a circle of power, burn her body as fast as possible, and bind the released demon to crystal. I've got... an idea how we can burn the body fast, which doesn't involve a flame thrower by the way, but I don't think you'll like it Anita"._

 

Loved the lack of a flame thrower. I had first met Edward when he had burned down a vampire house using a flame thrower (A house I was in at the time); but Edward was right. I hated his idea. Really really hated it. And it was the best plan we could come up with. Now all I needed was to get her true name or something close to it.

 

Ted and coven departed to setup the details away from here until Childe showed and we departed for Egypt. Then they would return.

 

Crap the timeline was too compressed. We were bound to be making mistakes.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Decided to add a few tangential crossover guests as well. Lots of doppelgangers in the multiverse. Chapter 13 is dedicated to Tashio as he/she actually comments on the story (ohh me like). Plus added some explanations about the "rules" as it were which is also a suggestion from Tashio.

**Part 13: Shaman**

 

I had a quickie with Nathaniel and Micah after Ted and the coven left; fed the _ardeur_ onNathaniel (yes this is  very voluntary for him and no I don't force him). Then I sent Nathaniel away. He was rather downcast but he's a stripper, not a fighter (oh, forgot to mention that). Nathaniel works at Guilty Pleasures, a high end were/vampire strip joint for woman. Oh, so does my vampire to call. Damn, just explaining that makes me feel cheap.

 

I decided to call the case Marshal for Childe's little Oregon adventure while the various people we selected for the earning's event arrived. Some selected by me, some selected by the various were leaders; looked like we were going to have wolf, cat, hyena, and rat on the trip, as well as some extra guarding the homestead. Plus my own vampire to call, Damian.

 

I dialed the cell number of Michael Twoyoungmen, a Portland Federal Marshal of the paranormal department (same as mine).

 

I'd met Michael once, before he'd become a Marshal. He'd been a bounty hunter that specialized in the mystical. Mostly worked with the native tribes in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. He was native American via Canada (his parents had emigrated to the US when he was five). The rumor was that he was a spook and I don't mean a ghost. Undercover Federal type from one or more of the shadowy agencies like the CIA or NSA. His Federal Marshal gig was supposedly just to allow him to walk in the light of day as it were.

 

He was one of the ones with a nickname as well, Shaman. He was a major ritual magic user. He also a big player in the native American were clan community, but he was not a were. In fact he claimed to be immune to the Lycanthrope virus. He also had a were cougar girlfriend (A cougar who was a cougar. Yea I know, lame joke).

 

The phone rang a few times and then he answered.

 

 ** _Michael:_** Hello? This Michael.

 ** _Anita:_** Marshal, this is Marshal Anita Blake. We've met before; at the native American were powwow in Seattle last year.

 

 ** _Michael:_** Yes, I remember you. What can I do you for Marshal Blake? I assume this is not a social call.

 ** _Anita:_** It's about the Happner case. I think I have a hit.

Silence for few seconds.

**_Michael:_** I'm... somewhat surprised to be hearing from you Miss Blake. The spirits had informed me that a cat would be bringing me news. The spirits are notoriously imprecise, but a cat was prominently mentioned during the ritual.

 

I did mention his nickname was Shaman, and yes he supposedly did talk to the spirits.

**_Anita:_** Umm... Well I am in the Nimir-Ra of the local leopard Pard.

 

So did not want to tell him that I currently carried the Lycanthrope virus for leopard, but did not shift.

 

Author's note, Nimir-Ra means queen.

**_Michael:_** That would cover the cat part I suppose. Well Marshal Blake, what has the cat dragged in for me?

 ** _Anita:_**  Person of interest seventeen from the Seven/Eleven security camera. The blond.

I could hear some typing in the background.

**_Michael:_** Yes... The blond. We hadn't been able to track her at all. I assume she is in the St Louis area?

 ** _Anita:_** Yes. I encountered her last night and this morning.

**_Michael:_** What made you think she was related to this case or even gave you cause to try to look her up? Assuming that you're not a case file junkie who reads up on all the cases in the US? Rather out of your routine Marshal zone.

 ** _Anita:_** She's a demon. That kind of gets your attention. I looked up cases of satanic rituals and lots of dead bodies for the last few weeks and saw the photo. I suspect your case is her summoning location.

 

Edward and I had discussed how much to tell Michael. Turns out Edward knew and respected Michael (quote, he knows how to keep his mouth shut and is good to have at your back). We had decided to go the full monty.

 

 ** _Michael:_** Shit. So she's one of the demons?

 

Double shit. One?

**_Anita:_** Umm, one of the demons? There are more?

**_Michael:_** I believe there are at least two demons. Which is strange as the ritual appears to be your standard offer a sacrifice and raise a demon to give you something kind of setup. However, I think they ended up with more then one demon, which partially explains the slaughter. They were unable to contain the extra entity or entities as it were. How strong did it feel? Come to think of it why are you still alive? Did you fight it off or kill it?

 ** _Anita:_**  No I didn't fight it off. In fact she she's hired me to raise a zombie.

I quickly filled in the details. Michael was flabbergasted. Teleportation, Khufu, hints of dragon, Cairo, and a blond demon who likes clubbing and dancing. He offered his professional assessment.

**_Michael:_** You are so screwed.

 ** _Anita:_** Thinks for stating the obvious. Any... useful insights?

**_Michael:_** Sorry. I'm rather shocked. I had no idea that an entity of such... well power had gained access to our world. Stephen is going to shit himself blind.

 ** _Anita:_** Who's Stephen?

**_Michael:_** Umm... an... acquaintance of mine. I... consult with him on such cases. He has interests and abilities in such... situations. Marshal, my girlfriend has access to private jet. She and I expect to be in the air within an hour or so and in St Louis four or five hours later. I know that does not match your time table but it's the best I can do. I'll... contact Stephen but the earliest he could get there from New York is tomorrow morning. Noon is far more likely. You and yours are sadly on your own. I agree in not involving the rest of the local Marshals and the local police; just result in bodies, and I'll put that in writing once I get there.

 ** _Anita:_** Nice of you to offer that Marshal. Not many would. So any advice?

 

He gave me some pointers. Sadly no great insights. He also agreed with the coven that that the screams I hear when I'm around her are likely souls of the sacrifices and/or other dead children. Possible souls have become enslaved and are being tortured to power or feed her. He also felt that my necromancy was somehow likely giving me access to her surface mental state or aura; hence the screams. He give me some additional crime scene details and opinions that were not in the general file (or I had not seen the details as I skimmed the documents).

 

 ** _Michael:_** If you saw the photos then you know just how much of a blood bath that sacrifice room was. Forensics tried to recreated what they think happened based on the position of the bodies and blood splatters. They think the front group was slaughtered in some kind of frenzy. They were the ones with the missing heads, harms, hands, cut in half and such. Then the slaughter appeared to become more precise. Deep penetrating wounds instead of slashes. All the wounds appear to be caused by the same weapon, a long sword. Finally there was the last victim, if you can call those bastards victims.

 ** _Anita:_** Yes, a Mr. Arnold Blasten I believe.

 

 ** _Michael:_** We believe he was the leader. He had a deep belly wound, a slow death rather then a quick stab to the heart or head. He had also been tortured, apparently a horde of small creatures has started eating him from the toes on up. Rats from the chew marks. We think he was being questioned and he had not been cooperative. We also think he became cooperative very quickly.

 ** _Anita:_**  Yuck. Rats. Had my own bad encounters with a hord of rats under control by another.

 

 ** _Michael:_** Funny thing though. He should have been able to survive the belly wound if he had but transformed into a wolf.  We know he was alive after whomever did the slaughter left. We first thought he had been too weak to transform, but then, when I carefully examined the bodies in the morgue, I leaned that he had been enchanted in such a way as to block transformation.

 ** _Anita:_** So the perp questions him, agrees to let him live, but make sure that he can't transform resulting in a slow death that he thought he had outwitted?

 

 ** _Michael:_** Yea. Nasty. Defiantly got on somebody's bad side. However, your description of the demon teleporting does explain a little detail we've been trying to figure out.

 ** _Anita:_** What?

 

 ** _Michael:_** We found a secret room in his house. Took us over a week to get in, steel walls and a concealed vaunt door. The room was eight feet by 12 feet. We found that somebody had already been there. Searched the room, stuff was scattered about. The stuff that was left was... vile. Trophies from prior kills as it were, body parts. We think these folks were responsible for over forty missing people in Oregon and Washington state.

 ** _Anita:_** Any idea what was taken?

**_Michael:_** Forensics says some empty boxes held residues of money fibers and ink. Plus some boxes has gold residue on the sides.

 ** _Anita:_** So, likely the payment that she gave me. My office manager Burt is oh so going to be pissed that the payment is now evidence. Damn I've got to go, she will likely be here any minute. Hmm she mentioned the "rules" as it were several times. The Coven says all demons are bound by rules but they didn't really go into what the rules were? Any insights you can pass on?

I could now hear car noises on the phone now. Apparently he as on the way to the air port.

 

 ** _Michael:_** Hmm, the rules are... well flexible. Specifics rather of depends on the demon. Let's see... Minor demons can't really exist very long here unless they posses somebody. Think of it as a buoyancy issues. We're under water and they want to float to the surface as it were. Possession is where they've grabbed hold of something so they can stay submerged. Also think of our environment as toxic in some ways to them. It hurts for them to be here and the rules as they are trying to force them to go.

 ** _Anita:_** Ok, like the buoyancy metaphor.

 

 ** _Michael:_** Demons can't really get into our world until summoned. Then when they depart they can't really get back into our world. Note my use of general statements and not specifics. There have been exceptions and the exceptions remain unexplained. Demons don't explain the rules.

 ** _Anita:_**  Understand, the rules are not always absolutes.  

 

 ** _Michael:_** More powerful demons are like sea mammals. They can dive down and stay underwater a long time, but they still must eventual surface. The bigger the demon, the longer they can stay down. To continue the analogy, it sounds like you've got yourself a whale.

 ** _Anita:_** Great. Not planning on being Ahab here.    

 

 ** _Michael:_** Demons tend to be restricted in the usage of power here. It's like magic doesn't quite work the way they're used to it working. Like an American trying to spend a dollar in France. They don't take dollars, only Euros. Got screwed that way last year. No coffee for you, no Euro no caffeine you stinking American, and we don't take plastic. But I eventually got some Euros and then some caffeine. Meaning I started to learn how things worked. Sounds like she's learning, not a good thing.

 ** _Anita:_**  Agree.

 

 ** _Michael:_** And just to muddy the water., demons may say they are bound by rules that they aren't. Meaning they lie. And we don't actually have the rule booklet as it were. I believe this is how many an enchanter departs this mortal plane. Suddenly the demon ignores the rule that the enchanter just knows the demon must obey.

 ** _Anita:_** Ok, got it. Any other advice?  

 

 ** _Michael:_** Don't swear any oaths with her. That rules things again. Demons are really big on oaths. Oaths have power.

 ** _Anita:_** Agree. Double agree.  

 

 ** _Michael:_** Don't trust her. Don't believe anything she says. Regardless of whatever she's agreed to do she is going to betray you, likely try to bind you and kill all of your friends. Do unto her before she has a chance to do unto you is my advice.

 ** _Anita:_**  Yea. I was rather afraid of that.    

**_Michael:_** Good luck.Wish I could say more. See you in a few hours... I hope.

I terminated the call.

Yea, I going to need all the luck I could get. Hmm... something felt off on how so far only I could hear the screams. The other weres and vampires could hear nothing, and no magic using folk had been around her yet so mum on any informed opinion there. Yet... If my necromancy was allowing me to hear the screams then in someway she had to be... well either dead or somehow associated with the un-dead? But that was frankly impossible, she was a demon, not some undead creature. Or was she?

 

You know... If she was wearing the body of a sacrifice then that could be the key. After all if she was dead then she couldn't be here. Hmm, I wonder what happens to a demon if you kill it? Can you kill it? Could a demon come back from the dead?   Naaa, way way out in left field now girlie. The sacrifice victim she's wearing has got be it.

 

Something extra to ask the Shaman when he gets here. Assuming I'm still around by then.

 

Hmm, demons, not demon. Wonder where the other demon or demons are? Crap, just more to worry about now.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Transition chapter. Can't think of any deep words to say. Childes back now, on with the story.

**Part 14: Getting ready for Cairo**

The sky had finally cleared and the sun was almost set. Childe still had not made an appearance. I had finished arming myself for impending trip. I had my Browning pistol, plus the 9mm, plus some knives, plush the short sword hidden under my shirt against my back and concealed by my hair. That sword had saved me a few times as the bad guys sometimes did a sloppy pat down. I prefer a gun, but heck, a sword can make you just as dead.

 

I was currently standing in my driveway wondering where the heck Childe was. My six dance partners for tonight were:

 

Micah (wereLeopard, male), you've already met him. My Nimir-Raj, my leopard king. Micah has chartreuse yellow/green eyes that won't shift back to human eyes. He spent too much time in animal form back when he and his Pard had been enslaved by a very bad man called Chimera (he's dead now, another reason why most of the were community treats me with a great deal of respect, yea I killed him). Micah is about the same height and same size as me. He had with rich brown hair that I so love to run my hand thought. He was currently in the house with...

 

Bobby Lee (wereRat, male), ex-mercenary and all round very bad dude when he wants or needs to be. Dangerous and very skilled. Combat expert. He'd had my back before and I was glad he was going. He and Micah were in the basement getting Damian.

 

Damian (Vampire, male). A green eyed, red haired Viking, he's almost a thousand years old. Not a master vampire but he can fly; which was news to me that some vampires could fly. He lives in my basement and is my vampire to call (meaning I'm kind of his Master). It's my power that allows him to wake each night and fills him with life, umm it's complicated. Then there is...

 

Jason Schuyler (wereWolf, male). He's Jean-Claude's _pomme de sang_ (blood donor), the first blood a vampire takes upon wakening. He's blond with ultra baby fine hair and blue eyes. He also works at Guilty Pleasures as a stripper. Yes, I know a lot of strippers, deal with it. Good friend of mine and quite the pain in the ass from time to time. He was currently standing next to me. Also next to me is...

 

Sylvie Barker (wereWolf, female) She's five foot six inches, short curly brown hair. She's the second in command of the werewolf clan (werewolf clans are called Lukio, the wereLeports are a Pard. Yea, all the different were groups got their own name for the same thing). She was a bad ass fighter. You do not want to be on the wrong side of this woman. We didn't used to get along but then we bonded as it were and she really likes me now. Umm we bonded over my aiding her in killing those who had raped and tortured her a while back (So many not nice details in my life, oh and they had oh so deserved it). I rather like her too. Over by the front door was...

 

Ixion (wereHyena, male), Bodyguard. Strong bruiser. Takes orders well. Don't really know much about him.

 

There were several other guards scattered about the area, a mix of Hyena, Rat, Wolf. Plus some members of the Pard (they were always hanging out at my house as it is kind of wereleopard central).

 

Jason had just gotten done expressing his hopes that we were going to be stood up when a car was seen driving down the road towards my house. Well, we heard the car first. The stereo was on full blast and it was one of those sound systems designed to annoy the neighbors for miles. It was playing Aerosmith Livin' On The Edge.

 

There's somethin' wrong with the world today

I don't know what it is

Something's wrong with our eyes

 

We're seein' things in a different way

 

And God knows it ain't his

It shore ain't no surprise

 

Livin' on the edge

Livin' on the edge

Livin' on the edge

...

...

 

As the car, it was a Honda Civic, turned into my driveway I could begin to hear children screaming in the background. Turns out Childe took a cab to my house, an Uber online cab, of all things. The car stopped just as the song ended.

 

...

Livin' on the edge

You can't help yourself

You can't help yourself

Livin' on the edge

You can't help yourself from fallin'

Childe got out of the front passenger seat. She reached back into the back seats and retrieved backpack and a gift wrapped package. She was again wearing jeans, sneakers, and the light green turtle necked shirt from last night; and was still under dressed for the weather. How on earth does she avoid freezing in that? Must be a demon thing.

 

Childe briefly spoke to the driver, paying him I suppose. She then shut the door andt he Honda backed up and drove away. Childe turned and walked over to the three of us and handed me the package. The screams were at background level, but Childe didn't feel as strong as when we had met this morning. Was her power leaking away, fading is it were?

 

The box was square and roughly the size of a human head, but the box was not very heavy. Little penguins wearing Santa elf hats were on the gift wrapping. Again showing that she knew way more about me then I was happy about. I collect stuffed animal penguins, gives me something to cuddle. Well, had given me something to cuddle, the number of men in my life rather left me with a surplus of really nice cuddling material.

_"Here you go Miss Blake. A... gift. Best to unwrap it after tonight's little jaunt"._

 

I accepted the box, not like I had a choice. _"Thanks, I think"._

 

I handed the box to Jason whom I could tell was checking her out. Yea the package, meaning her, looked great but sooo was not a good idea. I'd had a talk with everybody going about what she was.

 

I attempted some small talk _"Don't you get cold"?_

 

Childe briefly had puzzled expression, like it was something she'd never given any thought to. Then her expression slightly darkened. Uh-oh, apparently not something she liked thinking about.

 

_"No. I lived in a cold... climate for a long time. Cold didn't bother me anymore after that"._

 

Ok. Let's not pursue that. Let's try a question closer to home. _"Uber"?_ I said with a questioning tone. _"I thought you were going to just appear or something"._

 

Childe replied with a grin.

 

_"Porting takes effort here and you seem to get kind of wigged out whenever I show up that way. So I thought I'd travel using a more traditional method. Plus, my driving sucks. Which is kind of funny. I can fly planes and even a space ship or two, but driving is just plain awkward. Shards I hate parallel parking. Had to take my driving exam three times before I passed"._

 

Ok... that's odd. Somehow the thought of a demon taking a driving exam was just extra strange. Really gives credence to the delusional girl theory or a demon that thinks it's a girl.

 

Child looked over my two companions, then briefly spoke.

 

_"Two little woofs"._

Great more fighting words.She so had a problem with werewolves. Luckily Jason and Sylvie had been warned about the insult so they didn't get worked up. Well not worked up much. Sylvie frowned and replied.

_"Why the rudeness? We've never met so there is no cause. Should I try to come up with some raciest demon derogatory term for you"?_

 

If Child took any offense she did not show it. She replied after blowing an honest to God bubble, apparently she was chewing some gum.

 

_"I don't like werewolves much. Bad baggage in the past and recent past. But... you're right, it's rude. I should at least allow you the opportunity to piss me off for what you've done rather then what others have done"._

Hmm, a definite hit on the Oregon werewolves.

Childe stuck her right hand out to shake.

 

Sylvie looked at it briefly. Likely wondering if it was a snake, then gingerly took Childe's hand and shook it. I swear everybody held their breath, but nothing happened.

Childe released Sylvie's hand and opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly got distracted and looked across the yard to where one of our wererat guards was standing with one of the new werehyena guards (we, meaning Jean-Claude, were branching out on the guards and were letting some of the hyenas in to see how well they worked out). I suddenly got a bad feeling.

 

She stared briefly at the two and I saw an expression cross her face that chilled me. Her monster peeked out as it were. I knew that expression. I express it myself when I'm angry and heading in the direction of hurting or killing something or someone. That sociopath look, the lack of human emotion. The look that just screamed danger and made me the oh so not nice girl that I was from time to time.

 

 _“Excuse me for a moment”_ she said and started walking towards the pair.

 

Oh fuck. I could feel something bad was going to happen. Sylvie, Jason, and I exchanged worried glances. _“What’s wrong”?_ I mouthed at Sylvie.

 

Sylvie whispered back _. “I think our Hyena has a big mouth and just wrote a check she’s planning on cashing. Although she doesn’t feel powerful enough. She doesn’t feel like the person you described. She feels... like a girl”._ Hmm, apparently Sylvie couldn't sense what I sensed.

Shit. There’s always someone in a group that just doesn’t get it. Don’t talk to her, don’t talk about her. Don’t stare at her, and don’t, really don’t, flirt with her. Easy instructions you’d think. But no, there was always somebody who had to learn the hard way.

 

The three of us hurried after her. We caught up just as she reached the pair, who had noticed her walking up and were looking at her with that blank guard look.

 

 _“What is it I smell like"?_ She was addressing the werehyena, there was a pleasant tone in her voice that I just oh so knew was an act. Shit her hearing must be good. Got to remember to treat her like a were in that regards.

 

He was a big one in that you could tell he hit the gym and weights a lot. Six foot five and very wide. Big strong beefy fellow, but likely more muscle then combat training. The Hyenas had not really understood the difference until that little takeover of their group a while back. Their leader was now trying to rectify that dangerous oversight. His eyes flicked to us looking for direction. Bit late now. I gestured for him to answer the question.

 

_“Umm, you smell kind of like wolf, but… off. I was wondering why. I thought you’d smell more… Umm demony”._

A tone of cold dismissal and a hint of anger, but no surge in power. _“No. That’s not what you said”._ The wererat guard’s eyes suddenly got really big and he started to back away.

The cold tone was still there, but something… silky was now in her voice. _“You said, and I quote. She smells like a weak wolf and she feels like I could break her in half with just my dick”._

Sudden beads of sweat on the brow of the oh so soon to be fired guard. He felt concerned, scared of me, but not scared of her. He was right to be scared of me. He was about to learn that he should have been more scared of her. Much more scared.

 

Her power slowly unfolded, like a dragon unfurling its wings. Vast wings. It flowed over us like the hot exhaust of a furnace. Over everybody in the area, I could both see and feel the shock of the guards who had not yet felt her power. I felt both Jason and Sylvie freeze. Even I could smell wolf now, but the scent was more then just wolf. It also had an aroma of black pepper and gunpowder as well. It was large, dark, angry, and hungry. God, it was so hungry. How to describe the experience? It was like we were all suddenly within the jaws of some vast beast and the jaws were closing.

 

Not wolf, not just wolf. Damn the image of dragon was so vivid. I couldn’t shake the image in my head of a dragon, a golden dragon.

 

I felt her power clench about the guard and start to squeeze. He appeared to be unable to move and had a trapped terrified look in his eyes.

 

 _“Wow, with just your dick. What a mighty creature you must be. I’m sure the girls are all so... impressed. So you think I’m just… meat as it were”._ There was anger and cold rage in her tone. She wasn’t shouting, but I knew everybody could hear what she was saying. Some kind of magic projection.

 

Her power continued to squeeze harder. Something was building up.

 

_“Let’s at least give you a fighting chance”._

And with that the power squeezed like a fist slowly crushing something. The something being the guard. He wasn’t crushed as such, which would have been very scary. No, he was crushed in slow motion out of his human shape into his full hyena shape. She had called flesh as it were, something only the strongest weres could do, and forced him to transform.

 

He had been a big human, he was a bigger hyena, the size of a pony. A terrified pony sized hyena. She stood in front of him.

 

_“Take it. Take your best shoot. Use your claws, jaws, or dick if it really is that powerful, and show me just how strong you are. Take your best shot and then…”_

 

The cold tone of death. A tone I recognized as it was my tone of voice sometimes. _“Then I take **mine** and we see if they can even find any part of your body”._

Her power was thick, hot, abrasive. She stared into the eyes of the giant hyena while he made tiny whining yelps. Turns out hyena boy was smarter then his actions so far had shown. He submitted. Rolled over and showed his belly, barded his throat, and closed his eyes. Utter submission. He was hers to abuse, kill, or ignore.

 

She looked down on him for a few seconds, her back was to me so I couldn’t see her face but I could smell that gunpowder wolfish scent. I noticed that Sylvie and Jason had assumed a submissive posture; eyes down, shoulders hunched over, knees bent to reduce height. I glanced around, shit all the other weres in sight had assumed submissive postures. All of them.

 

I turned back as she snarled _“I’m nobody’s meat”_ while she grabbed the hyena’s throat with her left hand. **_“Nobody’s. Is that clear”?_**

****

Apparently it was. The smell of fear and submission was coming off in waves from the hyena and I suspected the other weres as well. They were all predators, some were true apex predators. But even an apex predator feels fear when something bigger and badder moves into the neighborhood.

 

And with that the power lifted and the scent floated away, like the wings had folded back. She went back to feeling like only a mildly strong were to me and not a particularly dominant one at that. But nobody here would be fooled by the act now.

 

It hit me this was all… well not an act but a performance, a statement. She’d manifested her power and dominance in a way no were would be able to ignore or forget. Yet, interestingly, nobody was hurt or killed which left me confused. A demon would have done the same thing, assuming that it wanted the cooperation of the other parties; but hyena boy here should have been dead and in little unpleasant bite sized bits by now.

 

I've done the same in the past when I needed to make a point in were society. I'm Nimir-Ra for the local were leopard Pard, called the Blooddrinkers Pard by the way. Before I had become infected with the Lycanthropy virus I was rather limited in my ability to discipline members of the Pard. They were stronger and faster then me, all I could do was threaten to kill them or any other were who interfered with my Pard. I know, I know. Sounds brutal right?   Well it's how most of were society functions, you're only as good as your threat.

 

My threat is very good. Elisabeth, a Pard member, had constantly given me grief which I had tolerated far too long.   I had killed her lover, the former leopard king who had been trying to kill me, so I had felt rather guilty. But she finally pushed me too far when she betrayed the entire Pard. In front of the all the Pard members I'd first kneecapped her with my 9mm, then had finished emptying the clip into various body parts (yes she lived and healed and yes it had taken a while heal). Then I'd reloaded with silver and let her know that next time it was over. Dead over. She'd gotten the message, and the rest of the Pard did as well (they were very freaked out. I can get oh so scary sometimes and it's not an act).

 

There are fighters, killers, and stone cold killers; the kind that can walk up to you and just shoot you or buy you coffee. Most weres are fighters, many can and do kill, but cold stone killers? Naa that's not how most of them are. Animals just aren't that way and it's reflected in most were incarnations as well. Edward and I, we're stone cold killers; and that's why I win most dominance games with weres. I'm frankly scarier. Scarier up until now.

 

Sylvie whispered, _”What the fuck is she? I’ve never meet a demon, but I can’t help but think that’s way more then just a demon”._

Childe turned and smiled a smile that so did not reach her eyes. _“I don’t think you really want to know, you’ll sleep better that way"._

Childe glanced at the sky and the now set sun. Then she did something that I wish I had understood better. My knowledge of magic is actually rather focused on the dead and my power of necromancy so what she did next didn't really impress me. Turned out I should have been.

 

 _"Time to get dressed I guess"._ She said as she swayed and shivered just once.

 

Her clothing faded away and she was now dressed in that odd full body suit of yellow and black spandex that formed some kind of stylized X that I had seen in the memory image from the new Master of Cairo. I assumed she had somehow been dressed in an illusion hiding the body suit.

 

_"There, ready to go"._

I gestured in the direction of my front door, where Ixion was still standing, and we proceeded to walk over to it. Jason and Sylvie were no longer in a submissive posture, but their body language stated, hell shouted, that they were very concerned. Concerned and scared. I noticed that they walked behind us, like any less dominant animal would in a pack structure. Shit, the weres were likely going to be helpless against her if she turned on us. I began to wish I'd selected a smaller group for tonight.

She opened my front door and walked into my house. The warm heat was welcoming, but the smell of cigarette smoke was still very strong. Nathaniel had lit some candles, before he had reluctantly left, in an attempt to get rid of the smell; so now it smelled of burnt cigarettes and vanilla. So not a yummy smell.

 

Childe apparently found the contrast amusing. She turned to me with a slight smile on her face as if to make a snarky comment when her suddenly frowned in thought. She then took a few sniffs as if she was tasting the air. If her hearing was so good then what was her sense of smell like? And just what smell had caught her interest?

 

Weres hear and smell way beyond human baseline even when in human form. This can be... embarrassing as they can smell who you've been with and just what you've been eating and doing. We kept getting hints of dragon and I'd bet dragon's had had a good sense of smell.

 

Childe spoke _"Umm, you wouldn't by chance know a Canadian? He would likely be short, roughly four and a half feet tall, give or take a few inches. Smokes appalling cigars, and drinks beer like its water but never gets drunk"._

We all looked as confused as we were.

_"No"_ I answered for all of us.

Childe continued with the descriptions.

_"Likes to fight? Preferred solution to a problem is to stab it? Backup solutions involve more stabbing? If that doesn't work then slashing and even more stabbing on the off chance that repetition will work? Likes to comment that he's the best as what he does, but what he does isn't very nice"?_

 

 _"Again no"_ I replied.

_"Odd, I swear I smell him. Must be a coincidence then. He'd have fit in with all you oh so well, especially the ladies. But I think the other Alpha males would have... issues, brief issues"._ Childe turned her back and continued walking into the living room.

 

Hmm I mused to myself as we all followed. Best at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice? Nope, no idea. But, in a odd way that statement did describe Edward very well.

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, back to the story as it were. Act three I guess of a four act play. Our protagonist has once again ascended the stage. As the curtain draws back...

**Part 15: Mission prep and travel**

 

We were all gathered in my living room, which rather large by the way. Helpful in that I swear my house sometimes turns into the UN of the local were communities. Like it's some kind of neutral ground, that, and the wereleopard Pard club house. Sigh... At least I able to make the Pard mostly wear clothing, well some clothing. Weres are so comfortable with body nudity. It's just something all weres appear to have in common, something to do with the animal part of themselves.

 

My living room is quite open, couches and chairs mostly against the wall, and a flat screen TV mounted on the wall. The coffee table and end tables are arranged to leave a big open space in the center of the room. Childe was in the center of the room still holding her backpack. Jason put the gift wrapped package on the fireplace mantle.

 

We were arranged about the room. Jason by the mantle. Sylvie standing next to me by the doorway to the kitchen. Damian and Micah are sitting on separate sofas trying to look casual and almost pulling it off. Bobby Lee was standing by the stairs that went to the upper floor. Ixion was standing by the front door, which opens into the living room by the way.

 

Two members of the Pard were also present in the room Merle and Cherry (yes Cherry is her honest to God name). two more were outside the house. Merle was also leaning against a wall. Merle was Micah's body guard, he looks like an aging biker. Cherry was sitting on the staircase looking very freaked out, I assume she had felt what had happened outside. Cherry is tall, slender, and a natural blonde. She's was a nurse before getting laid off, laid off after her bosses found out she was a lycanthrope. Good medic, not a great fighter.

 

Merle was dressed like he had just come from a biker rally, which was his everyday attire. Cherry was thankfully dressed, she really prefers nudity at home. Cherry is rather in your face on how she dresses, fish net stockings and a white corset with matching panties was her current attire. Hmm, come to think of it I must have five closets worth of other peoples clothing here. And that's just the cloths from folks who don't live here. Remember when I said it was the Pard's club house.

 

Childe put her backpack down and surveyed the room. Her black and yellow spandex full body suit, the yellow create a stylized X, looked very good on her. She grinned and spoke.

 

_"Hello, I'm Childe. I'm sure Anita's told you all about me. Yes I'm a demon. Yes I wiped out the entire vampire and were leaderships of Cairo because they pissed me off. Yes I'm very very scary. Yes Anita and I are going to Cairo, as well as any of you that she's bringing along. Yes I can teleport. Oh, and I don't like coffee. So, any questions"?_

 

There were none. Good, people were paying attention to what I'd told them.

 

_"No? OK then. Those who are going on this little trip with Anita and I to the land of the Pharos please raise your hand"._

 

My six traveling companions raised their hands. Childe looked surprised and somewhat concerned about the number.

 

 _"Six? You need six body guards Miss Blake"?_ She bit her lower lip like six was an issue.

 

I replied and tried to be firm. _"Yes apparently. I asked some to join me, others were selected by the local Vampire and Were leaderships. Is this too many for your abilities"?_

A light dig, and a dare as it were. If teleporting drained her power then teleporting more should drain it more.

_"No, just that... Well, I'll have to use a different ritual to actually do the transport. Hmm, I see the white queen is staying behind"._ She gestured at Cherry who looked terrified at being noticed by Childe.  

 

She looked carefully at everybody who had raised his or her hands. _"Vampire, cat, rat, hyena, wolf, and wolf"._ I noticed she enunciated wolf to call out that she was not saying woof, Sylvie looked pleased.

 

She looked slightly annoyed but resigned _. "OK, a few ground rules then. I assume you're all here to protect Miss Blake, which is fine me. I need her. Remember, I don't need you. Something's might happen on this trip that may motivate you to attack me, after all we are going to raise the ancient dead and a lot of blood is going to be shed, mostly mine by the way"._

 

She continued as she reached down and unzipped her backpack.

 

" _I'm sure your Alphas have told you to protect Miss Blake, just remember what I can do and ask yourself just one question. Just whom will I punish if you attack me. You? Very likely. Your Alphas? Definitely. I swear I mean Miss Blake no harm. I swear I mean you no harm. I swear I have zero interest in any of your souls". _

She pulled...Giza tourist maps out of her backpack and gave one to each person.

 

_"The mission profile is simple. We will be appearing next to the pyramid of Khufu, that's as close as I can get. We will then walk to the entrance of the pyramid, enter and proceed to the grand gallery. We will ascend the grand gallery to the tomb where Miss Blake and I will raise the mummy of Khufu from the dead. Khufu's already there; I stuffed him into his sarcophagus several hours ago. After Khufu is raised and I ask my questions, we will exit the pyramid where I will then teleport everybody back here"._

_"The ground Sit Rep is safe. We are jumping into... well not friendly territory but allied. The Giza plateau has currently been sealed off by the Egyptian government. They have concerns about magical... well activity. This has been facilitated by the Master of Cairo and the local were community. There are werelions and werecobras on the ground, they are allies and not hostiles. There are no vampires present. If there are then they are hostiles and treat them accordantly; but again there should not be any present"._

_"I assume the more combat capable of you will take point and rear guard. I assume Miss Blake will be in the center of the formation as we both value her. I will be in front leading you in and out"._

Hmm, a clear and concise briefing. Bobby Lee gave me a brief look. Yea I got what he noticed. She'd had military, or paramilitary training. Her use of terms gave it away.

Childe concluded the briefing. _"I assume you will all be armed with firearms. I will not be; I don't need to be. Remember that. We leave in ten minutes so take a potty break"._

Everybody looked to me. I nodded my head. Time to go, so better to go now (ha ha). As everybody milled about, and Cherry vanished in the direction of the kitchen, Bobby Lee wandered up to me and spoke in his thick southern drawl.

 

_"Looks like interesting times girl"._

 

I replied while I watched the room. Childe had apparently decided to sit down on one of the easy chairs. I suppose she's already done her business before showing up or demons don't have to pee. _"Don't call me 'girl', Bobby Lee."_

 

He responded with a grin _"Yes, ma'am. Well gatito negro I hope all will be well"._

 

Childe started and her head swung to look at Bobby Lee and I. Everybody froze. Childe got out of the chair and walked over.

 

 _"Did he just call you... Cat"?_ Childe asked with an odd look, like she had just remembered something and was slightly confused.

 

_"Umm, no. Kitten. Black kitten. It's kind of a nickname I have amongst the Rodere. I'm small with black hair, cats hunt rats and I'm partially a wereleopard and of Mexican decent on my mother's side so they call me gatito negro from time to time"._

 

Childe kept giving me a strange look, then glanced around my living room again taking it all in. Then she turned back to me and just stared again. Rather unnerving, like she was taking it all in and trying to... remember something? Then Childe shook her head.

 

_"Never mind. Sorry, reminiscing about the past. I knew somebody called Cat once. She... she somewhat looked a bit like you now that I think about it. Brownish black hair and... the same attitude. She died"._

_"I'm sorry, how"?_ I asked without thinking.

_"I snapped her neck"_ was Childe's reply.

She walked back to the chair and sat back down. She... she looked kind of sad all of a sudden. She watched the organized chaos of everybody getting ready and just looked alone.

Bobby Lee and I exchanged glances. No, neither of us had a clue what had just happened.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, last chapter before we get into the stuff I wrote months ago. I look upon the various Anita Blake novels and see a support infrastructure for Anita that Childe never had. Can't help but feel that Childe would be envious.

**Part 16: Break on through to the other side**

Everybody was back from his or her pee breaks and was getting ready. Bobby Lee now had an MP-5 9mm sub machine gun slung across his back (he would take point with Childe). Ixion had a ten gauge semi auto shotgun in his hands, eight rounds plus one in the chamber (he would take the rear guard, yes ten gauge, man that sucker hurts to fire even if you have a shoulder pad; but if you were built like Ixion it made sense. He had a mixed load of solid slugs and dense shot). Everybody else had at least a 9mm hand gun, plus a few extra goodies. Damian and Micah each had a satchel holding various zombie raising equipment (lotions, containers, salt, and my silver enchanted machete, plus some things that would burn very very hot).

 

Everybody was dressed in dark clothing, mostly leathers and denim. Hmm, not as stylish as the film The Matrix but it would do. Come to think of it, Childe was the only one who looked like she could have stepped out of the Matrix, that spandex getup of her's was rather tight and showed... showed that many a guy, and few ladies I knew, would really love to unwrap her. And no obvious panty lines; wonder if she was commando under the spandex? Damn, I hated hot blondness sometimes.

 

Cherry was still nowhere in sight, smart girl. Turned out she was in the kitchen brewing up a mass of coffee for when we got back.

 

Childe got out of the chair and walked over to me. She shooed away Jason and Damian who were currently standing next to me. It was not like they wouldn't be able to overhear the conversation; we are talking were and vampire senses here, but it does give the illusion of semi privacy. It's a were/vampire social convention thing, if you want true privacy then it usually takes a major effort.

 

She still had an air of reflection, of slight sadness about her. She looked me up and down, which made me more than a bit uncomfortable. Then she again glanced around the house and at the people in it.

 

_"You've done well Miss Blake. You have... love. Support. People who know exactly what you are and what is inside of you; and yet still love you. I'm..."._

Suddenly her tone hardened, like she had forgotten herself and was now remembering what this was all about. And again an implied threat. _"Don't... don't screw it up"._

She walked back to the center of the living room where she had left her backpack on the floor.

 

_"OK, everybody gather around me, but not too close"._

No worries on that, nobody wanted to get that close. We all gathered round. She took a few tentative spins in a circle making sure she had clearance. What the heck is that all about?

 

_"This is going to take some concentration so don't distract me while I'm transporting everybody. I'd hate to lose somebody somewhere or heck even somewhen. This is not how I normally move about, but I can't do that here"._

_"Why"?_ Jason asked.

 

Good question I guess, but I really hoped his verbal teaser side was not going to start trying to play word games with her. Childe surprised me in that she answered with a lot of detail.

 

_"Because I won't be able to get back in again unless summoned. I'll be locked out of your... dimension. Rules, so many rules here. And before any of you get any bright ideas, anybody with me would also be locked out as well and somehow I don't think any of you want to end up living where I call... home"._

_"In a few seconds we will be in Giza. It's cold and the wind was blowing when I left"._

Childe bent over and pulled... an IPod, with a set of ear plugs, from her backpack. Rather a letdown on the magic instrument power scale. She placed it on her left upper arm where somehow it stuck. Hmm, no Velcro or sticky strips in sight.   She put in one ear plug but left the other one dandling. She saw our questioning looks and explained.

 

 _"Music helps me concentrate for such activities. OK, here goes"._ Then a soft statement _"Can't believe I'm crimping Spiral's techniques now"._ Hmm, wonder who Spiral is? Then another one of her so not funny jokes.

_"Thank you for flying infernal airlines. Please keep your hands and feet inside the teleportation zone at all time and always obey the directions of the flight crew, otherwise accidental or deliberate harm will result"._

She hit play on the IPod. From the loose ear bud we could all now faintly hear the Doors' Break on through to the other side song playing.

 

You know the day destroys the night

Night divides the day

Tried to run

Tried to hide

Break on through to the other side

Break on through to the other side

Break on through to the other side, yeah

...

...

 

Childe started to spin in a circle, like some kind of twirling dance, and everything got... weird. My house and everything faded away as my vision was filled with... well static. It was as if I was inside a TV screen of static. Then the static cleared and I got a gust of grit blown into my face by the cold desert wind.

 

Childe was still spinning and wow was she strange looking. Once second a blond female spinning and the next a female shape make only of static. She kept alternating between static and human form as she slowed down unless with one last flicker the static vanish.

 

Childe bend over with her hand on her knees and panted for breath. I was glad to see that the teleport took had strained her. She asked a question as she panted. _"Is everybody here"?_

 

Not the kind of question you want to hear from your pilot. I quickly counted, yep all seven of us, plus Childe, were here. Everybody spread out in a circle with Childe and I at the center.

 

 _"Yes we're all here"_ I replied. Then I glanced around.

 

Egypt. The pyramid of Khufu loomed above us. We were right at its base. The air was cold and a twenty mile per hour wind was blowing grit right into our faces. As I continued turn around so I could take in a full three hundred and sixty degree view the impact of where I was hit me.

 

Giza. I could feel the power in the ground. A low throbbing of suppressed might, of ancient magic's only partially slumbering. Man I could understand why the Egyptian government keeps out all magic users and necromancers.

 

You could only get access to Giza, upon paying an access fee, after inspection by a group of Islamic Imams and Coptic Priests. At one time the group had also included Jewish Rabies but the political climate since 1945 removed them. If you were rejected then that was it. Giza was a no go zone for you, if you tried to force the issue... well the guard have had to shot folks. There was no intent of allowing a repeat of the 1922 crisis when a fringe cult had briefly seized control of Giza and managed to rise some truly horrible demons, it had taken the British army five days of fighting to regain Giza and kill all the monsters.

 

Bobby Lee was facing in the downwind direction, he spoke _"Somebody's approaching, and he's a big one"._

Childe straightened up. _"That should be_ _Ōyutaka, he's... one of mine"._

 

Crap. Did we just find the missing demon? No as it turned out.

 

One of the largest men I have ever seen slowly approached with his hand out stretched. He was Japanese and obviously some kind of Sumo wrestler. 6 foot ten inches and at least 400+ pounds. And when I say big I don't mean fat, yea there was a load on him, we are talking Sumo wrestler after all, but there was a massive amount of muscle on him as well. Think a really wide slightly shorter version of Shack O'Neal and you'd be close.

 

He was dressed in traditional Japanese black and silver silk robes. He had a 30'cal light machine gun slung against his back via some kind of shoulder harness (I did say he was big) and what looked like two Japanese katanas at his side. Talk about being out of place.

 

Oh, and he was a were. Everybody tensed as he got close. Felt... felt like some form of cat. Lion would be my guess. Damn, so did not want to ever meet him in lion form.

 

Mister really really intimidating bowed low in the direction of Childe " _Kurai aijin, I greet you. All is as when you left, but the air is disturbed and filled with dark portents"._

Childe replied rather formally _"Ōyutaka Masachika, I would expect no less of you, and yes I feel it to. These are the guests I spoke of. Let the word and scent of them be spread amongst your people"._

 

Childe now looked around the landscape as if she was inspecting things. Great, dark portents; no kidding. I could feel the power that was radiating from the ground. Something was disturbed all right, there is no way the Imams would ever let anybody near this place if this was how Giza normally felt.

 

 _"Childe..."?_ I spoke her name with a questing tone and left it open-ended.

 

She turned and looked at me with an ironic half grin. _"Looks like all of my poking about has reawaked some old magic. This place didn't feel so... so spooky before. Must have started after I put Khufu back in his box"._

_"And Mr. Man mountain"?_

_"Oh, forgot to mention him"._ Yea right. Forgot my ass.

_"I found Ōyutaka Masachika chained in the former Master of Cairo cells. Apparently he was on the menu for some other night. He's an exiled Sumo wrestler, banned when he contracted Lycanthropy. I'll let Ōyutaka fill in the details, I'm off to take a quick look around the place"._

With that Childe pulled her normal fade out.

 

_"Well Mr. Masachika, care to provide us with any more detail"?_

Masachika eyed all of us with that expressionless Asian stare that only non America Asians ever truly master. Yea, he looked inscrutable. Then he spoke.

 

_"It is as_ _Kurai aijin said. She found me chained after she had slain all who trespassed against her. I was Ronin, outcast, shunned. I had journeyed to Africa to see if I could find a home for one such as I as I heard werelions are plentiful here. I choose wrongly, I should have gone to the United States. Kurai aijin freed me and asked what I would do? I swore vengeance upon those who had stolen what little honor I had remaining. She told me that the tormentors were now all dead. She offered me a chance to regain my honor, she needed somebody to... rule the weres of Cairo for her. I accepted and am Ronin no more"._

Great, Mr. big and nastily thinks he's some kind of samurai and Childe his master.   Gee, I can't imagine why she forgot to mention this. So Childe was already setting up a power base in Cairo, sounded like she was planning on staying.

 

Childe choose this moment to reappear, scaring the bajazas out of Jason.

 

_"Things have defiantly awoken. I suspect there is more to Khufu's pyramid then I first thought. Masachika, take your folk and redeploy close to the border of Giza"._

_"Yes Kurai aijin"_ and with that he ran off into the night, damn he was fast for one so big. Ixion watched him go and uttered a comment that we all felt.

 

_"That is the biggest fucking werelion I have ever met"._

Childe chuckled. _"Yea he's a big one, usefully to have around and keeps the weres in line"._

Ixion had already opened his mouth so he decided to ask the question that all of us wanted to know. _"How did they ever catch him"?_

_"Same way you take down any large animal you want alive. Tranquilizer dart, really really big tranquilizer dart. I believe he was meant to be the main attraction at an upcoming feast. "._

Hmm, wonder what Kurai aijin meant, a name by chance? Decided to ask Childe. She gave me one of those assessing looks, like why was I asking, as she answered.

 

_"Dark Mistress, his nickname for me. Hmm are you by chance hearing anything Miss Blake"?_

_"Umm no, just the wind and our conversation. Why"?_

_"Turn around slowly and tell me what you see"._

Great. Sounds like I'm now in one of those horror films and just out of shot is the monster. If it were a film then you know some ominous music would be playing but all I could hear was the tinny sound of the Beatles singing strawberry fields forever; apparently Childe had not yet turned off her IPod.

 

As I turned around I found myself confronted by a ghost, which if you're a necromancer, is not very creepy. She, the ghost was female, was an attractive Egyptian woman wearing what looked like some kind of priestess getup. She was only an inch or so taller then me and was shouting and gesturing at me, although I could hear nothing.

 

Most ghosts are actually rather indistinct blobs, she was well defined which was odd in itself. She looked... well panicked. Like she was trying to warn me about something.

 

I described the ghost to Childe who commented on my description.

 

_"I see her as well, nice headdress. My wards are holding in that she is prevented from actually contacting you"._

_"What is she saying or trying to say"?_

_"The usual, warning of a great danger, promising you power if you let her in. Oh, and warning you about me"._

_"You"?_

_"Yea, apparently I'm a demon, no big reveal in that I suspect"._

 

Childe did a hand wave of dismissal while stating something in a commanding tone.

 

_"Orospu geri çekil"!_

 

The ghost looked... offended. Like she'd just been told off. She dissipated in a huff.

 

Childe started to walk over to the pyramid. Apparently we'd have to climb some 40 foot of stones to reach the entrance. She spoke as she walked.

 

_"Well let's get going. Khufu isn't going to raise himself now and the clocks a ticking"._

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Most of the contents of the next few chapters I wrote months ago. So you should likely see a burst of publishing for this story.

**Part 17: Darkness**

 

The climb was uneventful and we gathered around the entrance to the pyramid.

 

Gave me some time to think. So not liking what had just happened. Ōyutaka Masachika was a major concern in that Childe appeared to be setting up shop like she was planning on staying. There was no way that the Vampire Counsel was going to stand for that long term. I'd say the weres would never stand for it either, but so far every were freaked out in the presence of Childe whenever she went all dragony so for now they were out of the equation.

 

The opening was the original construction shaft now blocked only by a rusty steel gate, which was unlocked.

 

We were all standing on various stone blocks while Childe looked down the shaft. Black and ominous would be a good description. It's times like this that I realize the differences between life and fiction. In the movies the passageway would likely have been lit with torches. Or there would have been a convenient supply of unlit touches for the heroes to light and use to guide their way. In reality, well no such luck.

 

Childe made one of those comments that was so out of character for both her and the situation. I mean big bad demon right?

 

_"Crap the powers out. Umm, did you guys bring flashlights by chance"?_

Yes we had. Hey, I've done this kind of thing before. Even had a few extra ones and spare batteries I might add. Jason handed a flashlight to Childe.

 

She turned it on and led us into the depths.

 

The layout of Khufu's pyramid is rather contorted. There are three actual burial chambers, one beneath the pyramid, one in the center, and one in the upper third of the pyramid. It's like the builder kept changing his mind for some reason.

 

The stone passage at first sloped downwards until we came to a junction. The left side continued downwards but the right side now sloped upwards. We took the right side branch and after climbing the wooden steps we came into what is called the great gallery. The passage way opens up into a tall but narrow passageway; the ceiling being roughly 40 feet tall. The stone blocks slightly encroaching at each block level. Very impressive. There was another passage way here that went off to the mid level chamber, but we skipped that passage and began to accent the stairs of the great gallery.

 

The air felt thick, and stale. Like the back of an old dusty closet. Plus... plus there was something scratching at me just behind my eyes. Something wanted to be noticed by me. Something wanted in, not that I was dumb enough to let down my mental shields.

 

We ascended the gallery stairs, our flashlights flicking back and forth. Waiting for the monsters to attack. I mean, in a film there would be monsters, right?

 

Jason spoke while fingering his 9mm " _Umm, Childe? Is there something... well lurking in here"?_

Childe turned. Oh-boy she looked ominous from this angle. Lighting can so make a difference. Take a flashlight and illuminate your face from below. Looks really dark and scary vs. just shinning a light into your face at nose level or even from above.

 

_"No. Khufu's wards were broken long ago. I can see the tattered remains. However the wards are now more... well sparky as it were. Throwing off magical residue, likely making folks edgy who are sensitive to such things. How are you feeling Miss Blake"?_

_"Edgy. Like there's a monster just around the corner"._ Child smiled and turned back to resume the climb.

We continued the ascent. At the top of the great gallery there is a small square opening that led to a small room. We all had to crouch down to enter into the room. There was another small square opening at the other end of the small room. Childe ducked down and led us into the burial chamber.

 

It was rectangular room with a lidless broken granite sarcophagus in the far corner. The air was dry and smelled old. Plus there was now an oily funk as well. Like something long dead was there. I assumed it was Khufu.

 

Childe walked over to the sarcophagus and glanced at the interior. _"Yep, Khufu's still here"_ she announced. She gestured for me to approach. The rest of the crew spread about the room keep guard. Damian got out an electric lantern from his satchel and turned it on.

 

As I walked up I noticed that there was a small table at the head of the sarcophagus with an ornate clay chalice. They both looked old, very old, and quite Egyptian. The table was shorter then the sarcophagus so I had not seen it when I first entered the room.

 

Childe commented, " _I borrowed the table and the chalice from the Museum's store room. The chalice is for your blood, one pint I believe was mentioned. I hope you brought a needle so we can avoid the more traditional slashing of a wrist"._

I gave Child a glare. Yes I had brought the needle, the kind they use when you're donating blood. I already had enough scars on my arms, didn't need any more.

Khufu, well a mummy at least, was in the sarcophagus. He was mostly unwrapped. His mouth was open as if in a frozen scream, only a few teeth remained. His skin was black and oily from the pitch and asphalt used to preserve the body. The empty eye sockets stared at the ceiling and there were only a few wisps of brittle hair on his head.

 

_"Over to you Miss Blake. Oh, I'll need you to make sure that I can command the zombie. I may want to ask questions in a language you will not understand. I'm not sure you... really want to hear the questions or understand the answers"._

 

Yea right. Likely she was playing with me a bit, but crap that would mean I'd have to anoint her with the blood used in the zombie raising ritual. My blood. Like I said, crap.

 

I went and got a bag of salt, my machete, and the paraphernalia needed to draw my blood. I explained what I was going to do to Childe and the group.

 

_"OK Childe, first we will need to draw my blood, then I'll take some of the blood and, using my machete, I will inscribe a circle of power around the sarcophagus and the two of us. This circle will prevent things from getting in to inhabit the body of the zombie and prevent the zombie from getting out if it's uncontrollable. I will then anoint you with my blood, meaning I will smear blood on your lips and your forehead, so you will be able to command the zombie as well as I. Then we will attempt to raise the zombie which will take a bit more of my blood, and some of Childe's blood as well. The salt is for when we bind the zombie back into his grave. Any questions or comments"?_

Childe had one. _"Just one, I think you will need to take your cross off. I don't think It and I will get along well when I share power with you and you'll likely get badly burned"._

Damn, she was right. I already had a scar from when a vampire had grabbed a silver cross I was holding. Sucker went white hot. I reluctantly took off the cross and placed it in my pants pocket.

 

With that we began. First Jason helped me extract a pint of my blood, then Childe stood by the sarcophagus while I drew the circle with a small amount of my blood and the machete. I then invoked the circle enclosing Childe and I. Childe stood on one side of the sarcophagus, the one closest to the wall. I stood on the other side. The chalice holding my blood was on a small table at the head of the sarcophagus.

 

_“Childe I’d like to try to call Khufu first without you… aiding. I’d like to first see just how impossible the task is”._

 

She did not look surprised or annoyed. _“Works for me. I’m interested as well in how far you get”._

This was going to take more then just a prick of the finger. Heck, in theory I’d have to slaughter an entire village to raise the power needed for this, so no amount of my blood was going to suffice, but as I said it would take more then just a few drops. So getting tired of having to cut myself but a chicken was just insufficient and there was no way we could have gotten a cow in here. I drew the blade across the front of my forearm, a good cut but not too deep a slash. Blood welled up and dripped upon Khufu’s blackened form.

 

I unclenched my necromancy and its cold power began to flow out of me.

 

_“Khufu with steel I call you from the grave”._

_“With blood I call you from the grave”._

_“Hear me now Khufu, hear and obey. With steel, blood and power, I command you to rise from your grave. Rise from your grave and walk again”._

I felt something. A hint of a reply, but nothing more. It was like I stood at the maw of some vast black abyss and was trying to pull Khufu from the unimaginable depths with a line of thread. I trembled as I strained with all that I was… but it wasn’t enough. Nowhere close.

 

I stopped my straining and looked at Childe.

 

_“I sensed something but that was it. This is far far beyond anything I can do on my own”._

 

 _“As expected”_ was her cool reply. _“You need what I can provide”._

She held out her left hand and I gave her the machete. I kind of wanted to take a swing with the machete but Childe had already taught us well that such actions were futile. She took it and used it to slice her right palm open.

 

Rich red blood welled up and started to drip onto Khufu. She held it briefly over the chalice and some of her blood dripped in to blend with mine. Her power was still subdued, slight, but I could smell that the blood was more than ordinary blood. I could feel Damian and the weres freeze when they smelled her blood. There was power in it. Power and something else, something not nice.

 

She gave the machete back to me and I sliced a similar cut on my own left palm, just has she had done. I was so not looking forward to this. She stared into my eyes with a small grin as she clasped her right hand to my left hand and our mingled blood ran and fell on Khufu. My hand was lightly holding her hand, her hand tightly grasping mine. I felt her power gather, just beyond reach.

 

I dropped my shields against her and began again.

 

_“Khufu with steel I call you from the grave”._

Her power started to flow into to me. Like the first trickles of a flash flood.

_“With blood I call you from the grave”._

The power rose in intensity as it flowed into me and though me into that black abyss.

_“Hear me now Khufu, hear and obey”._

Her power hurt, burned as it flowed through me. The screaming was back at full intensity and this time it brought images as well. Bad images.

 

A young girl, maybe ten years old, being forced somehow to bite, chew, and swallow light bulbs. Her mouth and throat were a red ruin. Blood saturated her front of her dress and she was sitting in a pool of blood that I just knew came from the internal lacerations and cuts in her gastric track. She keeps crying and pleading for it to end, that she would study harder, all the while somehow being forced to bite down on yet another bulb and chew and chew and chew and chew and...

 

A blond young women, wearing a stained and filthy white bikini, bound to a wall by arms that had somehow grown from the very wall. She's a malnourished bloody wreck, almost a corpse and yet she somehow lives. A feeling of disgust fills me as I view her. Hatred for one so weak, the lust to abuse and hurt a burning desire...

 

Bound! I am bound and they are consuming me. Flesh and blood are taken as I scream. My pain is also being... fed upon; but it is not diminished. He knows so much about my kind and the rules that govern us. But he has made a mistake. I am more then he knows. With a scream I give shape to the hunger that lies at my core and burst my bonds. With a beat of my new found wings I extinguish the flames that provided illumination. Yet I can still see, see and hear and smell. It's as if the room is still lit. I seal the door with a minor enchantment and give voice to my displeasure. I... I lose myself in violence for a short while. I recover to find the doors opening to show yet another vampire...

 

God! I tried to pull my hand away and found her grip to be too strong. I'm not full lycanthrope strong, but I’m way stronger then human baseline and I couldn’t break that grip. Even as I struggled I continued the chant.

_With steel, blood and power, I command you to rise from your grave”._

My right hand, the one holding the machete shifted on its own and moved to hold the machete over Khufu’s head. Hilt above his head, the pointy tip aimed at the ceiling. Shit that was not me. As I struggled to get my left hand free Childe’s left hand rose and gripped the machete's blade. The edge cut deep and blood flowed down over my hand and started to splatter onto Khufu. As her blood covered my right hand the flow of power ramped even higher. She had completed some kind of mythical circuit and the power was now a flood. A flood that not only flowed though me, but took me. The bitch had me! Oh crap! This was more then a summoning, it was a binding as well!

 

_“I summon you Khufu. I summon you from the dark”._

I could see Childe mouthing the words I was saying. I’d become her puppet. I was bound as I’d ever been. Helpless and enslaved. Shit. Shit. Shit. I’d walked right into it.

 

I was the one that cast the circle of protection that trapped me with her.

I was the one that anointed her forehead with my blood.

I was the one who voluntarily took off my cross.

I was the one that gave her my blade to slice her flesh.

I was the one that sliced my flesh and interlocked our hands together so the wounds and the blood mixed.

I was the one that dropped my shields.

 

She had me. The bitch had me. She had made me her tool and probably was about to make me her servant. Oh GOD! I was the one who had brought both weres and vampire. Likely sacrifices, or even food, for whatever she was doing. I struggled even harder.

 

It made no difference.

 

_“From the abyss of time. From the darkness that eats all. Khufu I command that you to return”._

Something answered. Something was rising from the depths. Some that had been dead a long time.

 

Eyeballs like dried raisins grew in Khufu’s no longer empty eye sockets. The rigid body, the bones with blackened flesh stretched over them, relaxed; no longer frozen.

 

_“Khufu I summon you and I will not be denied”!_

 

The eyeball inflated into human eyes. One iris blue, one iris green. A blacked tongue gave a lick against non existent gums.

 

I felt like I had been immersed in a pool of molten iron. Her power was so hot and so strong. The image of wings was back. Mighty wings. I felt… I felt like my internal animals, leopard and wolf, were each caught in the rear claws of a dragon as it beat its wings and flew ever higher and higher. Her wings. Her claws. The dragon gave a roar of triumph, of rage, of hunger, as I gave forth my own helpless screams.

_“Rise from your grave and walk again”!_

 

Khufu sat up, his body drenched in blood, much more hers then mine. His head between our arms. His head turned and looked at me, then one skeletonish hand, more bone then flesh, gripped the edge of the sarcophagus and he started to slowly climb out of the sarcophagus.

 

With that Childe both released my hands and her power released me. I was no longer her tool, no longer an extension of her. And I was still unbound?!

 

Childe looked me in the eye _“Remember, whatever you do don’t let Khufu drink directly from you Miss. Blake. Give him the chalice. The blood must come from you”._

 

She had released me. She had had me dead to rights. I should have bound body and soul to her at this point but she had released me. I saw her, but I also saw the ghost image of the golden dragon in her aura. I looked upon her and was terrified at what just might be standing next to me. At what just might be my fate.

 

I backed up as Khufu climbed out the sarcophagus. I dropped the machete, which nosily clanged on the floor, and grasped the chalice with my right hand. I pressed it into his hands while I recited.

 

_“Drink of my blood and return to us Khufu. Drink and be bound”._

 

He raised the chalice and began to drink. The mummy turned zombie began to fill out. Flesh inflated. Clothing partial returned, he was dressed in dirty torn rags. He became… well not human but a zombie in truth, no longer a mummy. A rotting zombie old man dressed in filth rags with but a few wisps of grey hair upon his wrinkled head.

 

And as he drank I felt any control I might have over the zombie break as well.

 

Shit.

 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, just who is Khufu?

**Part 18: Resurrection**

 

Intelligence returned to Khufu's odd eyes and realization of renewed existence awoke within his expression. He lowered the goblet of blood from his blood stained lips and looked about. He had a blank expression as his eyes roamed over me and mine but his eyes stopped when they saw Childe. Stopped and stared. Then a resigned and rueful expression.

 

_"I knew you were persistent Magik, but this is taking the concept to a whole new level"._

Hmm, a name other then Childe, Magik apparently. Crap. You pick up a name like Magik like the Mother of Darkness picked up hers or a guy named big Al picks up his. Descriptive names are describing something about the person or what they do. Like my nickname Executioner or Edward’s nickname of Death. Well Magik at least helps explain her level of power.

 

Suddenly it occurred to me he was speaking English. Double crap. All of our theories about Childe may have just gone out the window. How the hell does a forty five hundred year old Egyptian speak English?

Childe, now Magik I guess, looked over the aged balding man with a slightly mocking expression. _“You ran. I found you. Time for those questions again”._

 

_“If I answer then I will be stripped of that which was granted me. Such was the agreement with… well you know”._

 

Magik showed her touchie feelie side we had all come to know and love “ _Your problem. You’ve already died. This is just a zombie echo of you”._

Khufu brought the goblet back to his lips and drained what little blood remained, then casually tossed the goblet into the sarcophagus, where it broke, and wiped the blood off of his face with his tattered and dirty left sleeve. He looked around the room with a mournful expression.

 

_“Place looks like crap. How long has it been”?_

 

Magik started to walk around the far end of the sarcophagus while she answered “ _Forty five hundred years. You ran well”._

 

“ _But not well enough apparently. Damn, all the blings gone. I had the walls covered in gold you know. It was splendid. Fit for a king. Took 40 years to build considering all the preparations. You do understand what it was for don’t you Magik”?_

_“Resurrection machine. Well built too, in that monolithic durable kind of way. Didn’t work though”._

Hmm, another little detail she had left out. I knew we were being played, but apparently the game was far bigger than I had understood.

_“No”._ He coughed a few times and then hacked up something juicy that he spit into the sarcophagus.Gross, I think it looked kind of beetle shaped.

_‘No it didn’t. Rules. Blasted rules trapped me here. I’m surprised that you were able to get in Magik, the rules being what they are in this remote dimension. Very restrictive”._

He gave Magik an apprising look. _‘Restrictive for me and it looks like for you as well”._

Hmm I noticed that she was back to appearing weak, not a dominant and her sense of power was low. I think I now knew why she had been practicing appearing weak. The two of them were not making much sense. Dimensions? I felt like a child overhearing an adult conversation.

 

_"How'd you get in"?_

Magik answered.

_"I couldn't. The rules forbid such as I from crossing over on our own. We have to be summoned. And nobody of course knew of me or would ever dream to summon me even if they knew of me. Took me a while but I finally found a way, I found a way to high jack somebody's else's summoning and crossed over with them"._

Well that likely explained the second demon in Oregon. But didn't explain where the second demon was.

Now a frown and an angry glare from Magik.

_"There were... complications. I did not like what I found even though I had had no part in it. They paid the price. Looks like you enjoyed yourself here"._

 

Khufu backed up a few steps and was now just three feet from the far wall. A look of rage was now on his face.

 

_“I still had some of my… abilities, and my training. I was able to usurp the Pharaoh and take control of Egypt. I was young when I got here. I died old. Old and decrepit. You caused that Magik, by making me run to a place I thought you could never enter. You couldn’t get in, but I couldn’t get out. Couldn’t stop the aging either. Even curing many diseases were beyond me here. And the device would take a long time to charge up, time that I no longer had. The best I could do was to have my body placed in this machine, my tomb, and hope I stayed put long enough for the spells to work”._

Magik, was now standing in front of Khufu, next to me _. “Be happy, you lived. Times up”._

**_“NO IT’S NOT”!_ **

 

With that angry shout Khufu clapped his hands and my circle of protection was ruptured not from within but from without. A wave of power smashed the circle and flowed into Khufu. At the same time some force grabbed all of us, including Magik, and slammed us up against the walls furthest from Khufu, pinning us there as well.

 

A thin red dust begin to seep from the cracks between the stones and converged on Khufu. The dust appeared to be absorbed by him and his clothing. He started to grow slightly in size. No longer a stooped old man, his frame straightened and filled out. His hair grew back and changed to a dark inky black. A neat black goatee grew on his face and his flesh was restored to health. His garments were restored as well, no longer tattered filthy rags, instead an elegant purple and white robe with a pair of white sandals. The image was manly vigor was slightly ruined as he had pot belly.

 

Most importantly I felt a soul, his soul, flow out of the structure and into his body. With that he was now complete and restored. Shit, it really was a resurrection machine.

 

Khufu’s voice was now a strong baritone, filled with power and pride.

 

_“It’s good to be again. And I even have the chance for some payback”._

 

 

 


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opps, somebody miscalculated.

**Part 19: Payment with interest**

 

I was pinned to the wall and unable to speak or move my body and apparently so was everybody else. Khufu continued to talk, apparently Khufu was quite the gloater.

_“This is more then just a resurrection machine Magik. It’s also a GOD machine. All it needed was deaths and time. Lots and lots of tasty deaths. So I built it in the biggest necropolis that I could find. Took a pint of my blood each month to draw the latest set of enchantments upon the recently laid stones. Ahh… I can feel just how many people are buried outside within the boundaries of the spell and the number is vast”._

Khufu began walking around the room examining each of us. Jason was first.

 

_“Hmm wolf I see, or dog if you want to be disparaging. Magik, you’ve came with an interesting assortment of… friends?   Naa. Can’t be friends. Not you Magik. Underlings? Minions? Likely just hiring’s for the moment, although I recall you usually work alone. Hmm, therefore they must belong to…”_

 

Khufu left Jason and now stood before me. _“Her. The Necromancer”._ I felt Khufu’s power flow over me. It was different than Magik’s , her power was hot and abrasive. Khufu’s was icy and felt… old.

 

 _“Ohhhh, she’s a strong one. And nice on the eyes as well”._ Great. Khufu wasn’t looking me in the eye but was staring at my chest. I so dislike a guy that starts a conversation with a titty stare.

 

Khufu continued his comments with a leer _. “I can tell she’s going to be useful in all… kinds of ways once I get done binding her to my will”._

 

Khufu resumed walking about and examining everybody, everybody that is except Magik.

 

_“Another wolf and a bitch at that. What’s your name sweetie? Hmmm the quiet type I see. Also nice on the eyes but a bit… lean for my tastes. Like them with a bit more curves. Well a pussies a pussy when you get right down to it and it’s been a longggggg time. Got a lot of urges to satisfy, how nice that I’ve got a nice disposable pussy here. Sorry dearie this is going to hurt quite a bit once I get around to you, but it will only hurt once”._

I had disliked Khufu the instant he had opened his mouth and started talking. The titty stare and binding comments had put him in the ranking of enemy. The comments towards Sylvie meant that killing him would now not only be ok, but fun as well.

He moved on to the next were.

 

_“Hyena. Yuck. Never really did like the Hyenas. Useful in the lower order of guards and grunts but not really fit to dine at the main table”._

He continued to walk about the perimeter of the room. _“Hmm Rat. Gads who on earth created wererats? Never could figure it out. I mean come on. Rats? Why not weremice or weregerbils while we’re at it”._

Khufu poked Bobby Lee in the abdomen with his right hand index finger while making his point and then moved on to Micah.

 

_“Hmm some form of cat. Feels like Leopard but not any kind I’ve felt before. Must be some non African leopard type. Ahh, that brings back some memories. I had an entire personal guard squad made up of only female werelions. Those were some fun times”._

His expression got ugly.

_“Fun until I grew too old to really partake of the bounty I surrounded myself with”._

He continued his stroll about, continuing to poke and prod as well, as if he was inspecting fresh meat.

_“Vampire. Just don’t like vampires. Destroyed or drove most of them out of Egypt. They had infested the priesthoods like vermin. All those giant temples oh so light proof. Even Her. I managed to drive Her out. She was the power behind the Isis cult while avoiding any notoriety. I was unable to kill her but she was lurking up somewhere up by the Hittites when I died. Bitch always had a thing for cats”._

Her? Vampire her? Shit, was he talking about the Mother of Darkness?

_“Shit”!_ He slapped his forehead with his palm in sudden inspiration.

 

_“That’s likely why the machine failed. I didn’t think anybody could get past the wards and wardens I had created. But she was powerful enough if she spent enough time at it. And I certainly provided her with sufficient motivation”._

Khufu now patted his chest like he was looking for a pipe or something.

 

_“She must have broken the wards and made off with my mummified body. I'm surprised my body still exists. Damn, she was a vindictive one when pissed off. During the take over struggles she… well no need to rehash old war stories. She must have dumped the body in some old tomb just for spite. Hmm, maybe I should have gone the vampire route like she kept suggesting, but just couldn’t trust her. Well, water under the bridge. Man she was a demon in the bedroom though. Speaking of demons…”._

Khufu’s steps had finally taken him before Magik _._ He used his right hand to turn Magik’s head first to the left and then to the right as he examined her. I noticed her hands were still bleeding.

 

_“My own personnel demon. Pursuing me across space and time like a bad Doctor Who episode. Hmm, how much have you shared with your… companions? Just how much do they really know about you? Still torturing kids and stealing their souls”?_

Shit, so she was such a demon. We were correct as to exactly what she was and what we were planning on doing. That defiantly explained the screams that surrounded her that for some funny reason only I could hear.

 

_“You still look the same. Tell me Magik, has it also been forty five hundred years for you or was it just me who took the jaunt in time”?_

She answered with an arrogant tone (well gee, somebody was still able to talk) _”Just you Khufu, as usual you didn’t get the enchantment quite right when you ran away and ended up here oh so long ago”._

Khufu snarled the word _“ **BITCH** ” _as he balled up his right fist and punched Magik full on in the face. Her head snapped back and bounced off of the stone wall and then hung forward limply, dripping blood onto the floor from a split lip and what was likely a broken noise and a broken tooth or two.

 

Khufu was now holding his right hand with his left hand and shouting about how much that punch had hurt.

 

_“Shit. Shit. Shit. Think I broke a finger or a knuckle. Damn it, even tied up you find ways to piss me off Magik”._

Magik lifted up her head and smiled a crooked bleeding grin. For some reason she was not healing like she had the time before when I shot her. She spit a mouthful of blood and a tooth onto the floor.

 

 _“Now what Khufu? More gloating? You always did love a good gloat”._ Guess I was right about his propensity to gloat.

 

Khufu held up his right hand and I could see the broken finger straighten out while Khufu muttered and cursed under his breath. Once healed he walked to the center of the room and turned around to face us.

_“Now? Now Magik I do what I originally intended. Guess my security wasn’t sufficient to prevent the looters from breaking in before the device was ready. But it’s ready now”._

Khufu spread his arms wide.

 

_“Time to ascend and rule this little world. I’ve got plans for you Magik, forty plus years of plans. Although I suppose I have to thank you for these morsels that you’ve brought along, always did have a thing for short stacked brunettes”._

A low base rumbling began and Khufu began to get… well bigger without actually changing size. He was filling with power. Crap, a truly massive amount of power. I feared it was going to be a godly amount of power.

 

_“I’ve won"!_

_"I’ve beaten death"!_

_"I’ve beaten you Magik"!_

_"I’ve beaten Her"!_

**_"I’m …”_ **

Magik snapped her right hand’s thumb and middle finger while saying just one word.

 

**“ _Finished”._**

Khufu shuddered, screamed, and bent his head over. He stopped growing as it were and… diminished. A second deeper tone began and started to resonate with the original tone that was still going on. Like somebody had the mother of all subwoofers going and was slowly cranking up the volume dial.

 

Magik pushed herself away from the wall and started walking toward Khufu, her back now to us.

 

_“Game over Khufu”._

 

Khufu raised his head, his hair had gone partially grey and he looked like he had aged thirty years.

 

_“ **NO!** What have you done Magik”!?_

I could hear the grin in her voice, that tone of satisfaction and achievement _._

_“Needed you to activate the device first. Wasn't able to crack the encryption. Needed you to have your soul back as well so you could answer all my questions”._

_“No! You must have hacked the enchantments, written your own name into them as well. Darkchilde! Please! Forbear! Join with me instead. I know things of this world that would take you decades to learn. We can be Gods of this little world. You can be more then just the ruler of Limbo. More then just a Hell Lord”!_

Darkchilde, yet another descriptive name that so was so not a good sign. Explains why she told me to call her Childe though. The comment about ruling some place called Limbo and being a Hell Lord really explained her power level now. Even demons had to have a hierarchy and it sounded like Darkchilde was at the top of one.

Magik replied with a cold tone of dismissal. _"I walk that path no more. I want what I was. What was taken from me"._

Magik snapped her left hand’s fingers and the pressure was released on me and my companions. She turned her head around and looked at us.

 

 _“I recommend you run. This is going to get… nasty and messy”._ She had a grin on her bloodied face, an expression that I was oh so glad that I was not the cause of. She was missing a tooth, but her incisors, they looked... looked like a vampire's now, long and pointy.

She turned back to Khufu and began to... well burn. Heatless blue and green flames surrounded her. Very creepy and intimidating.

 

Khufu was looking worse, even older. Apparently he was cutoff from the pyramid’s power. Magik waved her right hand and he flew into the air and was pinned against the wall which promptly grew pale white arms and hands which gripped Khufu. Big time freaky and just like the memory that I had gotten from her.

 

The pyramid was beginning to vibrate, remember that subwoofer dial, well somebody was continuing to crank it up, as we fled the main chamber and into the connecting great gallery. I could hear her last statement.

 

_“Now Khufu, about those questions...”._

 

Khufu began to scream as we ran.

 


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, how was that folks? Worth the build up? This chapter closes the third act of the play as it were. I'm on winter break at the moment (my company shuts down for a week and a half so I've got a bunch more writing time).

**Part 20: Pyramid scheme**

 

We fled into the top of the great gallery and paused as we gazed upon the disrupted scene. The pyramid was trembling and pulsing every few seconds. Each pulse appeared to squeeze both sides of the gallery and stone slabs that made up the roof were getting squished. Squished in this context meant cracks and chunks of rock breaking off and falling. In addition, each pulse was stronger then the last. Didn't take a genius to see that something was building up.

 

The wooden stairs was already partial crushed and crumpled. Some stone blocks had been thrust up from the floor as well. The air was starting to get warm, another bad sign. We looked at each other and then made a mad dash down the gallery hoping to avoid getting crushed.

 

 _"Shit girl, this place is coming apart!"_ Shouted Bobby Lee as he dodged a falling chunk of rock.

 

 _"No shit Bobby and don't call me girl"_ I shouted back as I climbed over an up thrust section of staircase.

 

We rapidly made our way down the gallery but found the exit blocked by a mound of wood from some collapsed scaffolding. The boys started tearing into the debris, trying to clear a passage way.

 

Man the whole pyramid was trembling and cracking, sounded like an icy glacier with the sound track sped up. Didn't quite know what was going on, but it was bad. Apparently Magik had seized control of this magical construct from Khufu and was now using it to interrogate Khufu. Felt like he was fighting back as well. Hmm... Khufu said something about Magik having written her name into the enchantments. I looked around and grabbed a fist sized chunk of fallen stone, there was plenty to choose from. I stuffed it into my jacket's pocket. Still don't know if we had any true names, but I was pretty sure I now had a chuck of rock that did.

 

 _"Clear!"_ Ixion screamed and thrust me into the partially passage way, Jason had already gone first to make sure that there weren't any surprises up ahead. Damn I hate being man handled about, but the weres were the strongest and fastest ones here and we really needed to get the hell out of Dodge. Behind me Damian and Micah were bracing the falling beams. Then the whole Pyramid did a kind of jarring shudder, like Oral Robert's five hundred foot Jesus had just backed his pickup into it or something. This resulted in all the wood being jammed together and braced as the great gallery got narrower, at least for the moment. I paused at the other side and helped pull the others through the passageway, Ixion left quite a bit of skin and blood behind as he was a bit bigger then the passageway but no matter, we were all clear!

 

It wasn't just the air getting warm, now the stones were heating up as well. Plus the air now smelt of burnt blood; which, by the way, was now oozing from between the stones. Massive Ick. Pretty sure that was a bad sign for Khufu. Wonder who's winning I thought as we continued our decent back to the junction. Hopefully neither. Had a quick prayer as I ran that they'd kill each other.

 

We got to the junction with much less difficulty then it took to traverse the great gallery. Thank God that passage way was not blocked. We could hear crashing and caving-in sounds from the part of the junction that descended down to the original tomb beneath the pyramid.

 

We started to ascend the access corridor. Things got... interesting. A falling stone crushed Ixion's left foot into goo. After we got him free he transformed into his half were hyena form which healed the damage (man was he going to be hungry). Only the stronger weres had the intermediate form. Many weres were either human, although stronger, or full animal. Every were on this little trip had an intermediate form.

 

A falling rock knocked Damian senseless for a bit, Sylvie and Micah each grabbed a shoulder and dragged him between them. Then freaking mummies of all things erupted from some hidden chamber. Crap it was like being in an over produced Raiders of the lost ark sequence. Turns out Mummies are rather susceptible to gunfire, kind of dried out and brittle; and weres were way stronger. We broke free but exhausted most of our ammo in the process.

 

I'll cut to the chase, we got out. Got out and ran down the side of the pyramid and stopped at the base. Shit the entire ground was shaking. With a massive cracking sound the top part of the pyramid appeared to break loose, with an eruption of fire I might add, and slide off, thankfully in the direction away from us. We took to running again, seemed like a good idea. We finally stopped oh a thousand feet or so away. Next to some little pyramid only fifty feet high, guess it was a condo or something.

 

The shaking had stopped. Shit, Khufu's pyramid looked like a Lego land construction that had been vandalized by somebody with a hammer and a blowtorch. Giza felt... felt dead. Like all the magic was gone.

 

We looked at each other, thankful to have survived.

 

Damn, had to give her credit. Magik had really played Khufu. Had to have been five or ten steps ahead of him the whole time. Acted like she was weak and had let him do his master move only to find that it lead right into her trap. And had played me as well, although not as bad as Khufu; at least not yet. Had to wonder about any other little details she had "forgotten" to mention.

 

Damien was the first to say something.

 

_“It’s going to be dawn soon here. I need to get undercover if Childe is not coming back. Anita I could fly you over to Cairo and we could find a place to hole up for the day while the others make there way over”._

Micah chimed in. _“We really don’t want to be around here when the authorities show up. What’s the sentence for destroying the only surviving wonder of the ancient world”?_

As if to punctuate his statement I could hear boulders making a racket as the more of the pyramid collapsed in on itself.

_“Likely death”_ I replied. _“The same sentence for any of us if we are found due to our natures; were, vampire, necromancer. We’re all dead if caught. Hmm_ _Ōyutaka Masachika should still be about. Let’s go find him and his. Damien you take off and find cover”._

Jason asked the question we were all thinking. _"Do you think Childe lived"?_

_"I don't know"_ I replied. _"I don't feel her anymore. Maybe we'll never know. But right now we need to get out of here"._

The weres started to fan out, sniffing the air, with the intent of finding one of the servants; when the sound of somebody clearing their throat froze us all in our tracks. The sound came from above us. We cranked our heads up and looked up the slope of the small pyramid.

 

Magik was sitting on a block of stone roughly 30 feet above us looking down on us. She appeared to be healed and my blood was gone from her forehead. Yea, a pyramid falls on her and not a scratch. She had a grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye. Well not really. More of a smirk on her face and a dark gleam.

 

 _“Done and finished”_ she announced with satisfaction as she started to climb down the large blocks of stone

 

Well, I was kind of glad that she'd survived, after all she was our ticket out of Egypt. She didn’t feel… well godly or anything. Just her façade of appearing weak, less then she was. It struck me there was no screaming. The choir of female screams were absent, and she looked... really tired.

 

While she was climbing down she slipped off of one of the massive rocks and fell five feet with a meaty thump on her ass, followed by some cursing (first time I’d heard her really curse, girl knew some language). Then she just lay up there and giggled. Not a ha ha I fell giggle, not a ha ha I won giggle. No it was a giggle that I have only heard from... well me. A giggle of utter tired delight after a really great round of... well... sex. That I've had a really good time and have misplaced a bunch of IQ points. Hmm, tired, clumsy, and now bliss'd out? Was she temporarily exhausted or was this just another game, an act? She finally got back up and finished climbing down, she was panting quite hard by the time she reached us. She had a black stick or something in her left hand.

 

 _“Well, that was... fun”_ she stated with a sigh of contentment and I believed her in that I was certain she had actually found this whole exercise entertaining. Note to self, do not, repeat, do not ever do this again. She resumed talking.

 

_“But the clocks a running and I’ve got to get all of you back before vampire boy here goes poof”._

Magik offered the stick to Sylvie. I noticed now that it was a blacked leg bone.

 

_“I read in your file that you liked to keep bones of your enemies and Khufu certainly qualified; sorry about that. I didn’t realize he’d become such a complete and utter pig. This is all that’s left of him and it's been de-magic’d. If you don’t want it then I’ll just chuck it”._

Damn just how good were those files on us? And since when do demons apologize? I felt the rock in my pocket. Yep, still there.

 

Sylvie looked to me for guidance. I shrugged a (what the hell) shrug. She took the bone with a small smile. She so did like the bones of a fallen foe.

 

Magik appeared a bit unsteady on her feet, but she caught me looking at her and flashed me another grin.

 

_“Yea I’m punchy. Had to fry the GOD machine when I was done. Didn’t want to leave it behind for the locals to play with. Just know there'd trouble. There were some... side affects due to having written myself into the enchantments”._

Another slight groan of contentment _. "Really nice side affects. Whoa, a girl could get used to that"._

Ok, one interpretation would be that she done a good deed and had had a really good time doing it. Another, more scary one, was that she has just eaten the power from the GOD machine and was shielding like mad.

 

I asked a question _"Get your questions answered"?_ Magik answered.

_"Yep"._

 

Magik waved for us to come gather around, girl was positively radiating good cheer, which was making me very concerned. Khufu has underestimated her, now was not the time for us to start.

 

Then Magik made a statement that terrified me on its implications.

 

 _"Man I'm starving. Supper's on me when we get back"._ Crap! Double crap. I just bet I knew what, or in this case who, was on the menu. Needed to do the deed as soon as we got back.

 

Magik pulled her IPod out of a hereto concealed pocket, stuck it on her arm upper arm again and put in one ear bud. She hit play and we could hear Guns N' Roses You could be mine playing.

 

_I'm a cold heartbreaker_

_Fit ta burn and I'll rip_

_your heart in two_

_An I'll leave you lyin' on the bed_

_I'll be out the door before ya wake_

_It's nuthin' new ta you_

_'Cause I think we've seen that movie too_

_'Cause you could be mine_

_But you're way out of line_

_With your bitch slap rappin'_

_And your cocaine tongue_

_You get nuthin' done_

_I said you could be mine_

...

...

 

Magik did that whole twirling thing again and we left the land of the Nile and returned to my living room. Where I was convinced Magik was going to do very bad things to us now that my usefulness was done.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, the fourth Act. I'm actually done writing the story. Now I'm doing editing (sighhhhh.....) and polish. Everything Anita is doing is consistent with everything she knows about demons. But... to quote the Bard:
> 
> There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

**Part 21a: Payback's a bitch**

 

We reappeared back in my living room. Magik fell to her knees and cried out from the exertion of the teleportation. Apparently she was running on empty, or so I hoped. Everybody scattered when we reappeared, leaving just Magik in the center of the room.

 

Behind Magik was a crystal ball lying on a sofa; it had been placed there by the coven after we had left. And I don't mean glass; it was polished flawless quartz sphere, the kind you always see in the movies where the fortune telling is looking into the future. Magik was on her knees and bent over gasping for air. Yea, she was acting as if the teleport had exhausted her, but who really knew? She had already shown the ability to hide power and play pretend with the best.

 

Everybody was clear. Half had fled to the back of the house and the rear patio doors, the others went out via the kitchen or the front door. It was just Micah, Damien and I. I invoked the circle of protection that the coven had cast after we had left for Egypt.

 

A reddish sphere flickered into existence and now enclosed Magik, the crystal sphere, and half of my living room. I saw Magik start at the invocation and give a gasping response.

 

 _"What <pant pant>... what just <pant> happened <pant>"?_ She raised her head and looked around. Then she sprawled backwards and sat on the floor and gave me an exasperated stare while still breathing heavily. Then she spoke.

 

_"I was planning on ordering pizza Miss Blake, not... consuming you or yours. I did promise after all and... I prefer pizza"._

 

Well, sounded nice but no way was I falling for it. I should be running for it considering what was about to happen but I just had to briefly linger. Not sure why. Maybe I wanted to see the real her.

 

Magik stood up, she was still unsteady, and approached the edge of the circle, then she poked it with a finger. It crackled and zapped. She jerked her finger back like it had just gotten burned. Guess that answered my unspoken question about the GOD machine. If she'd eaten that kind of power then this circle should not have been able to hold her. We were safe, for the moment that is.

 

She eyed the barrier with a look of... hmm a look of uncertainty. She then spoke again.

 

_"Potent. This... this is not your work Miss Blake"._

 

As I stared at her the subdued screaming returned. Children in agony, God I hated that sound from her. That sound only I could hear for some reason. She gave me a piercing stare and glanced around the room. Hmm, I noticed her little gift was still on the fireplace.

 

_"This is not wise Miss Blake. Release me and I will... forget this occurred"._

She turned around examining the room and froze when she saw the crystal sphere. She turned quickly back around. Girl looked... concerned, suddenly worried.

 

_"It will not work Miss Blake. You lack the proper... ingredients. Yes it will hurt but then... Then I will hurt you back for this. And I'm very good at it. I was taught well"._

_"Ingredients"?_ I asked. Damn, never thought of myself as a gloater. But for some reason I wanted to show her that she'd made a mistake. That what goes round comes round.

 

_"My name. You lack my name. It won't work without it"._

I pulled the chunk of stone out of my jacket and waved it at her. She first looked at me like I was unhinged, then her eyes got big. Ahh, knew it. Gotcha! We had her name all right. Right in this little piece of rock.

 

She bit her lip and glanced around again, then sighed. _"Release me and I shall depart. I will leave this world, I was planning on departing anyway. I swear to leave you and yours unharmed"._

 

I waved the rock a little. _"No dice girlie. Time to answer for what you've done"._

 

She gave me a blank look like she had no idea what I was talking about. Yea, she was playing pretend. No way was I going to release her. I started to back away towards the front door. Micah and Damien were already outside waiting for me.

 

Magik shifted from side to side and turned to follow me. She didn't look happy. She surprised me in that she begged. She didn't strike me as the begging kind.

_"Please don't do this to me Miss Blake. I was kind. I did not harm you or yours. If you release me I swore that I would depart and leave you unpunished. You don't need to do this"._

I reached the front door. Time to go. I gave my living room, and I guess my house, a last look around. A kind of goodbye I guess.

 

Magik was agitated. She hammered at the sphere and was repulsed. She started to panic.

_I... I will not be bound again_ ". Her tone got hysterical. _"No, not that again! Never **THAT** again"!_

Smoke, black as pitch, began to emit from her. I could feel the circle of confinement containing whatever it was the demon was doing, but I could feel that the circle would not hold for long. God, I could feel the power we had confined in that circle. It wanted out and it wanted out now!

 

She kept screaming about **that** , whatever **that** was, as I slammed the door and we fled from the house and ran to where Edwards and my Wiccan friends were supposed to be.

 

Shit, I really hope this works.

 

 

**Part 21b: The binding**

 

My [Wiccan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiccan) friends were in a little gap just beyond the tree line, they had formed an inward facing circle and were holding hands and chanting. Edwards was standing next to them. Melisa was in the center of the circle standing before a flaming brazier. There were several pages of parchment on the ground next to her.

 

Melisa hurried to the edge of the circle and we exchanged hurried words and the stone that contained Magik's name. Melisa went back to the brazier and picked up the parchment pages. Two pages already had writing on them, in red ink. The word Childe was on one and INR was written on another.

 

Melisa quickly wrote on two more pages. DarkChilde and Magik. She then wrapped the rock with a blank page of parchment.

 

I grabbed two joined hands, so as not to break the circle and joined with the circle. From my position in the circle I could see my house. I didn't know what to say, never took chanting 101, but I joined my power to theirs. I/we could feel the demon fighting our circle of confinement. It was going to break soon and the caged beast would be free. It had to be now.

 

Melisa started the binding. She dropped the parchment with the word Childe into the flames and cried out in Latin _"Per naturam examinatur!" (By your nature discerned)._ We all echoed what Melisa said. I had the mental impression of Magik being forced back from the edge of the circle and into its center, right by the crystal ball.

 

Melisa tossed the parchment with INR on it. _"Per pectus ostensum!"_ ( _By your beast shown)._ We poured our power into the enchantment. We could hear her screaming now, via the spell and our ears, wow she could scream. I got ready to unleash my necromancy.

 

Melisa tossed the parchment with DarkChilde on it into the fire. _"Venerandum tuum verum per sui revelavit!"_ _(By your true self reveled)._ I added the power of my necromancy to what we were doing. We could hear and see Magik screaming in our minds eye. She screamed and begged _"I promised! Don't do this! I swore"!_ It was way too late to stop, even if we had believed her.

 

I could sense that all the coven could now hear the screaming of the children that before only I could hear. My power was joined with theirs, they could sense what I sensed. I could feel then recoil from the sense of evil that flowed from her. It stiffened their resolve, they/we were doing the right thing.

 

Melisa tossed the parchment with Magik on it into the fire. _"Depellendum formam tulisti!"_ _(Be expelled from the form you have taken)._

 

Edwards triggered his little concoction, the mass of thermite that he had brewed up and hidden in the basement while we were in Egypt. Hidden in the basement right beneath the living room were the demon was now confined.

 

To say my house went whoosh would not do it justice.   A hundred foot roman candle like flame burned through roof of my house and erupted. Kind of like a space shuttle solid rocket engine in reverse. The gout of fire lit up the night sky and chunks of roof and such fell like a burning rain. We were outside of the blast and debris zone but man it was impressive.

 

If this didn't do it then nothing we were packing stood a chance. Maybe the government could drop a tactical nuke blessed by the Pope or something but we'd rather reached our limits of civilian mayhem and destruction abilities shy of a fertilizer truck bomb. Still, very impressive limits if you ask me.

 

Yet she was still screaming. How was that possible?

 

Melisa tossed the parchment with the rock that held her true name into the flames. _"Teneri nomina vestra!"_ _(Be bound by your names)._ All of our power stabbed inwards. I also tossed in the little residual bits of her power that were still flickering within me.

 

The screaming abruptly stopped, how on earth was she still been able to scream? How we been able to hear those screams over all the other noise I'll never know. Gives me chills to this day.

 

Shit, everything I owned was burning. As the flames roared high I couldn't help but think that Nathaniel was going to enjoy shopping for new tile and furniture.

 

Please let this work I prayed.   Please let this work. I'll be brief, it did.

 

 

 **Author's note:** Ouch that's got to hurt. Well that's that. Demon bound. Story over. Time for Anita to do her usual end of story summary and closing comments about what had just happened and complete any little details.

 

That's all folks... or is it?

 


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, sucks to be Illyana. Time for Anita to summarize the story like she always does.

 

 

**Part 22: Ruination**

 

The spell was done, complete. Melisa nodded at us and we dropped our hands, the circle broken. We all looked at my burning house. Shit, one my couches was burning in the driveway and I think I see a mattress burning on my lawn. Melisa was the first to say anything.

 

_"She's bound. Now we need to wait for the fires to subside"._

 

Well yea. That and the little issue of explaining to the authorities what had just happened. Hoped Shaman would be able to help smooth things over. I mean, shooting is one thing, but arson on this scale was going to take some explaining. Hoped I still had my Marshall job after this was all done.

 

Cherry came over and handed me a cup of coffee. Mmmm, coffee. Apparently she'd set up some kind of refreshment table with coffee and goodies after we had vamoosed to Egypt. So at least one of my penguin coffee mugs survived the destruction.

 

Micah came over and gave me a quick but nice hug while Edwards wandered over and gave me the good news with his usual grin.

 

 _"Anita, there is no way your insurance is going to pay for firebombing your own house. Never snuffed a demon before, thanks for the invite"._ Yea he'd enjoyed it. Another notch on whatever he notched.

Yea, I'm screwed. But all things considered, screwed and alive beats screwed and dead.

 

I took another sip and looked over my house. Some ammo was cooking off with loud pops, sounded like 9mm. We were going to have to keep the fire crew keep back when they showed up.

 

I wandered over to Melisa, my back now facing my now ex house. _"Now what"?_

 

She gave me a blank stare _"Now we wait. The essence of the demon is bound to the crystal. Once cool we will... dispose of the crystal where no one can retrieve it. There are those who would wish to make use of such bound power"._

Hmm wonder where that was? Likely the bottom of the ocean or something. Shit, need to make sure the counsel doesn't know about the crystal. Decided to make up a story about banishing the demon rather then binding her.

 

Well Shaman showed up a few hours later, with his girlfriend, and congratulated us on a job well done. Yea, he was able to help convince the Authorities that:

  1. A) It was justified and
  2. B) Was necessary



 

His New York buddy finally made an appearance in the late afternoon, he'd been delayed due to weather in Atlanta, all his miles were apparently on Delta.   Then we...

 

As I continued to imagine the summation of this little escapade I noticed Melisa's blank look suddenly change to one of concern. At the same time Edwards tapped me on the shoulder and asked question.

 

 _"Anita do you have any unusual chemicals in your basement?"_ Edward asked with concern in his eyes and tone.

 

I turned around. The flames were beginning to turn a dark deep red _._

_"No"_ I replied with the beginning of a really bad feeling.

 

I felt the first hint of her power returning, like the air was beginning to get heavy.

 

 _"Oh Goddess. It's breaking loose!"_ cried one of the Coven.

 

 _"That should not be possible!"_ exclaimed Melisa. _"No demon has such power! We had its true name. It must remain bound. Quick Sisters we must reform the circle"!_

Maybe no demon, but I remembered one of Khufu's descriptions of her, hadn't yet had time to pass on that little detail. Wonder where a hell lord ranked on the power scale?

 

I clutched my hands to my ears. We all did. A long drawn out scream filled my hearing, filled everybody’s hearing. It was infused with pain, suffering, and the promise of death.

 

**_"Nobody…!”_ **

****

**_“Nobody binds me again”!_ **

****

**_“ NOBODY"!_ **

 

I swore I saw some kind of dragon tail writhing in the flames. With that what was left of my house detonated in a burning wooden shrapnel explosion and shockwave and mass of fire. There was some kind of dragon like form make out of fire, neck outstretched and wings spread rearing out of the blaze. I only saw it for a fraction of a second before the shockwave hurled everybody about and I lost my coffee mug, only some of us were able stagger back up afterwards. I was one the unlucky ones, meaning I was still conscious and able to stand back up. Edwards and Melisa were passed out on the ground.

 

The female screams were back, the background noise ones, only ramped up to their original deafening volume and beyond.  Something aflame walked out of that inferno while at the same time her power roared back into existence stronger then ever and swatted down those of us still standing like flies.  

 

I collapsed on my side facing the burning ruin of my house, lucky me. From that vantage I was able to see the burning figure striding towards me with a font of fame in its right hand. Although to be honest you didn't need eyes to track its presence, the heat of both its power and its burning left no doubt as to its location.

 

The long range snipers, yea Edwards had deployed some of the wererats as snipers, decided to tempt fate by taking some shots. There were several rather dramatic detonations of the 50 cal sniper rounds as they disintegrated upon hitting some invisible shield that was roughly 10 feet from it. After the third round the figure paused, waved the font of flame and when next rounds arrived they just hung in the air instead of exploding. Another wave of the fire font and the rounds vanished, I later found out that they had returned to their origins and shattered the rifles they had been fired from. No more rounds were fired.

 

The figure resumed walking towards me until it was roughly eight feet away. The figure was completely obscured by flame and smoke, then the flame and smoke ran off the figure like water flowing off a statue leaving her standing in a blackened burning puddle. Revealing what she now was.

 

She was still blond, a bit taller and curvier, definite D cup now. She had goat legs and a long red devil's barbed tail, long sharp incisors, plus she had horns. Your classic female demonic caricature as it were. She was clothed in scanty silver armor and holding a burning sword in her right hand and the now fractured crystal ball in her left hand. The formally clear sphere now appeared to be made from broken smoky quartz.

 

Before, her power had literarily made it hard to breath at times; but with that sword? It was like being next to a wide open nuclear reactor on the wrong side of a meltdown. Her expression was filled with rage, which, considering what we had just done, was somewhat understandable.

 

Funny the things you notice when you're about to die. My penguin coffee mug, now broken, was by her left hoof.

 

She walked the remaining distance to me and held her left hand over my immobile body. She then clenched her hand and crushed what was left of the sphere into shards that then fell upon me. I closed my eyes to keep the sharp points out, expecting the fragments to be hot, but instead the small burns I got were from how bitterly cold the fragments were. Then, using her left hand, she grabbed me by the front of my shirt and hosted me into the air as if I was a five pound weight at a gym. I learned that she now had talons or claws on her hands as well and was not shy about grabbing a fair bit of flesh along with my shirt. Shit that hurt.

 

Great, my own personal rebel solder meets Darth Vader moment.

 

Time for plan B. Too bad there wasn't a plan B.

 

Her eyes were glowing orange with no iris, just the glow of power as if she was just a hollow vessel filled with energy and it was leaking out of where her eyes would be. Also her eyebrows were now little flames instead of hair.

 

She started yelling at me, which surprisingly, I could actually hear over the other screaming female voices. Which was odd. Since when do demons break free and just start hurling verbal abuse?

 

**_"Why" ?!_ **

**_"Why the hell does everybody on this stinking world want to either fuck me, rape me, eat me, kill me, or bind me"?!_ **

**_"Shards! Why did you do that Anita"?!_ **

**_"I liked you"!_ **

**_"I played nice"!_ **

**_"I followed the rules"!_ **

**_"I obeyed rules I didn't have to”!_ **

**_"I even paid you"!_ **

**_What on earth did you possible think you would accomplish by doing that”?!_ **

****

**_"NOBODY"!_ **

**_" NOBODY GETS TO DO THAT THAT TO ME EVER AGAIN AND LIVE"! _ **

**_"BELASCO DIDN'T"!_ **

**_"CAIRO DIDN'T"!_ **

**_"NEITHER DO YOU OR YOURS"!_ **

 

Looked like I'd been demoted from Miss Blake to just Anita now. I’ve found over the years that the revealed bad guy always want to know how you found out, not why you did something. And female spats tended to involve a whole lot of name calling, the less name calling the more dangerous the fight. Crap, she wasn't calling me any names.

 

Bitch didn't deserve an answer, but I gave her one.

 

" _Tried the free the children that you've slaughtered and bound you ungodly demonic bitch. Their screaming voices are so loud, worse of all is the one screaming for her brother Peter. Just get it over with"._

Then I started reciting the Lord's prayer and squinted my eyes closed as I waited to die. Hoped it would be quick.

 

The female screaming rose to a deafening shriek, then trailed off, back to that background level screaming. I felt a small lurch and the claws retracted from my flesh, but then nothing happened. After a few seconds I cheated by opening one eye a sliver.

 

Blond devil girl was gone, in her place was the original blond very much the worse for wear, very soot stained, hair half burnt off, and wearing her now very badly burned spandex costume. Still strong though, as my feet continued to dangled inches above the ground; and she still had that sword.

 

When you're about to die the oddest thoughts occur, like... why do the demon's get to be blond? Yea I know, odd thought even for me.

 

She was blunt and to the point. _"Explain yourself. What children and how do you know about Peter"?_


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yea, it wasn't going to be that easy. Hell Lord after all. That always complicates things. Time for some girlie talk Anita and Illyana style.

 

**Part 23: Interrogation**

_"The screams, the screams that surround you. The children that you've killed and bound. One of them is always screaming for her brother Peter. God, what did you do to her, she sounds like wolves are tearing her apart"._

I was able to move my arms somewhat, just enough for my hands to grasp her left wrist which was holding me dangling. Crap her muscles were like stone. Odd, she appeared... pissed, angry at what I'd just said.

 

_"You are mistaken. I have never killed children. Nor have I ever bond such souls to me, shards any souls to me"._

_"Bullshit"!_ Yea, I was in a mouthy mood. Hey, I'm about to die here, I had cause.

 

_"I've seen the Oregon crime scene photos. I know that's where you were summoned and at least five children died. Not to mention the body of the sixth sacrifice that you've been wearing"._

Behind her I could see Aster flying in holding Jean-Claude. Aster can fly, Jean-Claude can't. Hmm, not sure what they'd be able to do, but if I could keep her distracted...

 

Magik waved that sword of hers and both Aster and Jean-Claude hit the ground like a sacks of cement and lay still. Ok, not distracted. Shit.

 

Magik replied with a hissing venomous tone. _"You are mistaken. I have not been wearing a body. This is my body. Just what in damnation is it you think I've done"?_

Ummm? This is starting to not making any sense. Best to confront her with everything I know and see what she says.

_"The Oregon crime scene. There were five children on the alter. An... associate of mine, who is leading the investigation, claims that multiple demons were summoned. There was evidence of a sixth child being held captive. A female with long blond hair. The entirety of the cult was slaughtered by somebody with a sword". S_ hit, guess I know where that sword is. " _My associate felt that at least one extra demon had somehow been summoned who was not bound; the lack of binding resulting in the slaughter"._ No need to tell her who my associate was.

Magik glared at me for a bit. Her skin was red and blistered, like the mother of all sunburns. Her hair was half gone and the ends now burnt; oh and her eyebrows were gone. Man I could smell the burnt spandex she was wearing and noticed that it was still smoking, It was scary but I didn't show it, well hopefully didn't show it. Girl could give a look. She finally hissed a reply.

 

_"That would have been me. As I said to Khufu, I piggybacked on somebody else's summoning. His name was Gzzzkl'e by the way. I was... displeased at what I found. I slew Gzzzkl'e and most of those who were there. Then I... chatted with a Mr. Blasten. I learnt details about him, his obscene little group, and this world"._

Chatted. Nice euphemism for torture. Shit, at this rate it looked like Magik was going to end up having a long chat with me. Magik continued.

 

_"He tried bargaining for his life. I let him keep it for a while, but neglected to tell him that I'd blocked his ability to transform into his were shape. Don't... don't like it when there are kids involved. I have... issues with kids"._

Bullshit. Can't believe the lying bitch just said that to me. _"How can you say that you utter bitch when you gave me memories of you torturing children! How"!?_ Yea, I was on a roll. Heck, I'm as good as dead so might as well be aggressive about it. Maybe I can make her kill me fast.

 

Magic's left hand tightened. Ouch!

_"What memories?!"_ She demanded.

I explained about the visions of the young girl in the pool of her own blood being forced to eat light bulbs. And the tortured bikini clad woman bound to the wall, bound just as she had bound Khufu. I left out the whole eating the Master of Cairo and his crew vision, that hadn't involved kids and frankly I couldn't really blame her for that. I've have done the same, crap have done the same in similar situations.

She gave a shiver like what I was telling her freaked her out somehow.

 

 _"I did not know that you saw that within me"._ An assessing look. _"Must be your... talent that gave you such access as I shared power with you. Makes sense in a way, you are a necromancer after all"._

Ok, lost me on that, necromancer not demonology here. There must be some nuance to my power that involves demons. Man I wish I could get a copy of the rule book.

_"So how can you can you say you don't do such things"?!_ I shouted in her face. Made her lose her temper for a moment. She shook me about a bit and then pulled me in close to her face and screamed a reply.

 

 _"Because I wasn't doing it! That was ME! I was the one being..."! _She stopped shouting back and just looked at me as I dangled, then she pushed me away so I again dangled at arm's length and resumed talking in a more conversational tone in that she stopped screaming her replies at me. Her tone was now of angry bitterness and yet world weary.

 

_"It don't really matter. You've left me with... a problem. I can't just let you get away with what you've done no mater how much I... "._

She stopped briefly and looked around. Unconscious bodies were strewn about everywhere, at least I hoped they were just unconscious. I knew those with a tight mystical link to me yet lived, but I had no idea if any of the others were dead or dying. I could see that some did have injuries from the wooden shrapnel.

_Well... In your file there is a quote from you Anita that says it so well, Most hells are actually ruled with the implementation of that quote, (Can't have people thinking my threat means nothing). If I let you get away with what you've done then others will think that they can... get away with things. Can't have that"._

Shit. I'm dead. I oh so knew and lived that quote.

 

 _"But you've oh so complicated it. Now I'll... "_ She paused and breathed deeply, but then had a look on minor confusion. She took a hesitant sniff, then looked where Edwards was sprawled.

_"Damn, I knew I smelled Logan. Ummm..."_ She pointed with her sword at Edwards. _"What's his name"?_

_"Edward"_ I replied. _"Also goes by the name of Ted Forrester"._

_"Canadian"?_ Yea, the conversation had gotten really weird all of a sudden.

_"Not that I know of"._

_"Smells like Logan but doesn't look like him at all. Always hate it when I bump into doppelgangers. Shards, he's the one who lit me up isn't he? Well... he gets to die, might as well start with him. Then everybody in your Pard, need to make that lesson clear to any clan that gets ideas"._

Girl got a distant look in her eyes, started to tremble a bit and her eyes were starting to glow orange. Her burning anger was returning. Crap needed to think of something, anything to stop was about to happen.

_"Then I'll have to kill everybody here, and I guess all the were leaders who participated as well"._ Crap, little flames had now replaced her missing eyebrows. She was sounding angrier and angrier. " _Wolf, leopard but he's already here, hyena, rat...Vampires, hmm I suppose the ones here suffice. Fuck, I guess I'll have to track down any missing witches from the coven you used_ ".

 

Crap, girl was making a list and checking it twice; going to slay everybody regardless if they were naughty or nice. Then I came up with an idea, a bad bad idea but it was the only card I might have.

 

_"Umm... is there something that we can do to make this... well right? Something that does not involve the loss of mine or anybody else's soul. And does not involve me doing things that I find highly morally objectionable"?_

_"Objectionable"!_ She screamed in my face as she pulled me close again, damn even her spittle was hot. _"I don't recall any mercy being shown me when I begged you. Gee Anita, I wonder what kind of mood you would be in if you had just been gang raped and now the head rapist was sorry? Yes Rape! Not figurative rape! FUCKING RAPE!! No, you get to die last! You get to watch. What... what... What possible thing could you offer me that could in any way make this right"!_

Shit, she considered it rape. We already had seen what she'd done to those who had done the rape of fang and claw. Crap I'd seen it in her memories as well. Offered the only thing I had.

 

_"An oath. I'll swear an oath. I was warned not to. But... I'll do it if in someway it's possible to save everybody. I'll do it damn it"!_

She stared into my eyes for a long moment, which is really weird and scary when the eyes you are looking into no longer eyes as such. Just eye sockets filled with an orange glow. Damn, her burning eyebrows were singing my hair.

 

_"You won't be able to undo the oath Anita. One way ticket. I will require... a service from you and yours. That is my price for your lives"._

 

 _"Deal"._ Damn, sounds a bit like the favor I had owed Edwards when he called it in on that little visit I had in New Mexico. _"How do we do this"?_

 

She brought the sword close by my face.

 

_"Grasp the blade with your hands and swear that you and yours will do a service for me at the time and place of my choosing. Then seal it with your power"._

She explained how to seal it with my power. Rather like binding a zombie in to its grave. Odd but no time for questions.

 

So did not want to touch that sword. But I did it anyway. Damn, it both cut up my hands and burned in a way that did not mark the flesh. I swore and I bound the oath with my power just as she explained. Then I felt something... change. It wasn't me. It was her, something about her changed.

 

 _"I accept"._ Magik stated as the sword vanished and she released my shirt resulting in that I non-elegantly sprawled onto the ground. I pushed myself up into a sitting position.

 

The angry crushing weight of her power eased off. She looked... tired and... hurt.

 

_"What just happened? Something changed. I felt it"._

_"Fish vs. Whale Miss Blake. I was getter rather tired of holding my breath as it were. Now... now I don't need to be summoned to access this... locality. And I can move about in the manor in which I prefer. Your oath grants me this so long as it lasts. Oh... and"._

A smile that was not friendly in any way. " _My name no longer has power over me"._

Shit. We'd been played. Massively played.

 

_"I suppose this is the part where I'm supposed to cackle manically and tell you that you and your world are now mine"._

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, she was warned not to swear any oaths. This chapter ended up a bit longer then I thought it would. One more chapter after this.

**Part 24: Gates of hell opened wide and...**

 

Shit, shit shit! What to do?! I franticly grasped for some idea, any idea. Then it occurred to me that the oath was joined to me. It would only last as long as I lasted. I acted without a moments thought, because frankly, there would be no way I could do it if I thought about it.

 

I pushed myself into a sitting position as I drew my Browning and placed it against my temple and pulled the trigger. I heard the click of the hammer on metal but nothing happened. I franticly pulled the trigger a few more times and then quickly checked the gun. Safety was off damn it. I then cycled the gun which placed a fresh round in the chamber and tried again. Nothing damn it!

 

All the while she just stared at me with a neutral expression. Then, as it dawned on me that my gun was somehow being interfered with, she started a slow clap.

 

_"Most impressive Miss Blake. So few are actually willing to die for others, much less their world. I ...wondered if you'd behaved that way. Oh, and please don't try the knife"._

 

I looked at her and then threw the gun away. Damn it! I replied with angry disgust.

 

 _"Like you'd know anything about self sacrifice"_!

 

She stared at me for a moment and opened her mouth to say something, but then apparently thought better of it and closed her mouth without a reply and just continued to stare at me.

 

 _"Now what"?_ I asked in bitter despair.  

 

_"Now Miss Blake? Now I sit down for a few minutes. My back's killing me. I think a cross beam landed on me just as I extracted myself from your blasted crystal and cracked a bone or something"._

 

With that she gingerly sat down on the ground, like everything hurt. Which based upon her appearance I suppose it did.

 

She combed her right hand through her hair, big mistake as this resulted in a hand full of burnt hair and a rather significant bald spot. Her expression upon seeing the handful of hair actually made me laugh. Not a fun laugh, but that kind of nervous laugh you get when something really bad has happened.

 

Magik glared at me but then I swear there was a slight hint of a grin that she quickly hid behind that neutral expression.

 

Then she pointed at me and stated _"Gotcha"!_ At which she actually started to laugh. Not an insane I've conquered the world cackle. No, it was the laugh of a practical joker.

 

_"Sorry Miss Blake, but if you could only have seen your expression. Serves you right! And it's a bit of a toss up for me on either killing all of you or laughing at you. I think I'll go with the laughing for now"._

I was now neutral in my expression. I mean... what the hell do you do in this situation? She continued.

 

_"Don't feel too bad Miss Blake. It was a very good plan and if I'd been just an ordinary demon then it would have worked"._

She stopped chuckling in mirth and got a dark look. _"I... miscalculated, didn't think about the fact that I had bound my name into Khufu's pyramid. That... was well done"._

Ok, praise from a demon. Now what? She passed on a bit of info about what I had just done. Rather helpful info which I later confirmed was correct, at least as far as the confirmers could verify.

 

_"Don't try to kill yourself Miss Blake. The oath doesn't work that way. It's kind of a perpetual promise. It can and will survive your death if I haven't claimed it before you die. You'll be dead, but I can still summon you to fulfill your oath. So ixney on the suicidie. Won't work. Not now. Not ever"._

She looked over at my burning house and then continued.

_"You know what's weird"?_

 

 _"What?"_ I grudgingly answered.

 

_"I'm having a craving for roasted marshmallows and smores. That's weird, even for me"._

 

Had to admit it was weird. Asked the burning question.

 

_"So you're not about to conquer earth and enslave or kill everybody"?_

 

Magic looked at me and gave a sigh. Not her prior dramatic sighs. Just a normal sigh. Suddenly wondered if I was talking to the real person now, well demon I guess, and not just an act.

 

 _"No Miss Blake, at least not today. I said it before, for me there really is nothing of interest in this remote corner of creation. I came to ask Khufu some questions. That's all I wanted. Once you hatched your little... "_ Her expression got dark, _"plot I decided to play along, but then... you were rather more successful then I had thought you would be. You really should have let me go when I asked you to. I would have left"._

_"And now"?_ I replied.

 

 _"Well... now I have a gate key as it were. Explain to your magical friends what you did and they will likely... "_ she gestured over to where the various coven members were all sprawled about _"Explain that what you did was a variation of how a witch binds a demon as a familiar. After all, the whole point of a familiar is to have it stick around long term"._

 

Her voice got cold as ice _"Oh, and Anita. If you ever, ever again try to bind me, either actively or by allowing somebody else to try, I will kill everything and everybody you love and leave you to live alone in the emptiness of your own making, also know that if you were to find new love I would return to kill that love as well”._

Another reminder that this girl really knew how to make a threat. She continued.

 

_"Feel free to pass that on to all of your acquaintances as well. I won't be nearly as accommodating next time if somebody is stupid enough to create a next time situation". _

 

Need to write the down on a post it note and stick it on the fridge, hell nail it to the wall. Good advice to live by.

 

Now what? I'm rather not used to any of my big baddies actually living after I'm done killing them. I mean, she'd taken our best shot and was still standing, well kind of standing.

 

I examined her closely. She felt... different. Still demon, still evil, still... felt like a teenager which meant she had to be extra evil right (ha ha, sorry parental joke). But the sense of utter wrongness was gone. She felt... well not normal, but she felt natural? Since we were all chatty I decided to try asking a few questions.

 

_"Gate key? What that heck does that mean"?_

Magik was picking at her costume; apparently parts of it were now rather melted and stuck to her skin. She hissed in pain as she peeled of a strip of spandex off of her lower left thigh, and some skin as well (ouch!). She gave up picking at where her costume was melted onto her body.

 

_"I belong now. No longer not of this world. Now this world's, this localities, rules recognize that I belong, I have a right to be here. Good luck trying to rescind that"._

 

_"What are you Magik. Khufu called you a Hell Lord, but... you were telling the truth about taking driving tests? I don't understand"._

_"I am what Khufu called me. I... that's mostly all that's left of... me now. And yes I failed twice. Horrible at math as well"._

_"Where did you get that sword? Mug an arch angel or something"?_

She looked like she was getting annoyed being interrogated. She answered with a question.

 

_"Miss Blake, what was your defining realization of your power? When did you realize you were truly different and there was no going back as it were"?_

 

Ok, freebies were over. I guess I'd have to answer a question before I'd get an answer. Decided to answer as I rather wanted answers.

 

_"When I was thirteen. My... dead dog came home. We'd buried her out in the yard, we lived on a half acre so the back yard was really big. That night she dug herself out of her grave, came in through the doggy door, and jumped onto my bed while I was asleep. At first I thought she was alive, but... she wasn't. My step mom and Father freaked out. Hell, so did I. I always felt different, but that was when I knew I was different. Knew it and hated it"._

Magik looked at me with that appraising look of hers. Something I'd said had struck her.

 

_"Thirteen. How... odd. Funny, I was thirteen when I realized that there was no going back. The sword you asked about. It's called a soul sword. It's... all that I have left of my soul. I created it in madness and hate when I was thirteen and imprisoned in a frozen hell. With it I took over that hell. Gained the power to free myself only to find a greater prison"._

Soul? Since when do demons have a soul? Well, since when do demons take driving exams? That implied... hell stated that she had been... something else. Had she really been human? Those memories that she claims were actually her being tortured. I think I understood, but didn't want to. Didn't like it.

 

_"Would you have killed us or was it all just an act"?_

_"Miss Blake, when did you first kill and why? Vampire or human, I don't particularly care which; and how did you make you feel"?_

I didn't really have to think much about the question. Didn't really like answering, but I got the impression that the depth of her answers were dependent on mine. Like she would only share if I'd shared. Like my answers meant something to her.

 

" _When I started working for Animator's Inc I met_ _Manny, he was my mentor in both zombie raising and as a vampire executioner. Vampire executions were a way to make extra money and... and I liked the idea of killing the monsters. My first kills were court ordered stakings, then I graduated as it were to hunting down vampires. That's where I met"_ I pointed to Edward _"Edward who also somewhat trained me and gave me really good training advice. It made me feel... good. Killing the monsters. Now... less good, the monsters are sometimes... people, and I'm... well in so many ways I'm one of them now I guess"._

Magik answered and I was chilled.

_"Yes, I'd have killed you all. I'm not a good person Miss Blake. I'm one of the monsters. I... first killed when I was twelve. Killed my best friend in a fight to the death, then I killed... a mentor. It was the only way to prevent a worse harm being done to her. By the time I was seventeen I'm rather sure my body count was already larger then yours is now. Since... well... In the last few years I think I'm up to a few thousand or more, especially if you count demons. Remember that"._

 

One word. Crap. Hoped she was exaggerating, got the impression she wasn't. How the hell does somebody end up this way? I was rather wondering so I asked.

 

_"What the hell did you do? Sell your soul or something"?_

Turned out to be a really bad question. The fire in my house suddenly surged. The reddish illumination of her was rather intimidating in that now she suddenly had horns, her eyes were orange again and that sword of hers had materialized out of nothing and was at my throat. She spoke with venom and rage.

 

 _" **I DID NOT SELL MY SOUL!** It was stolen! I was only six years old!   Six when I was tricked into hell! Six! I was playing with Fozzie bear my Muppet toy, not spells! Forced to survive! Forced to learn. Forced to..." _ She calmed down a bit, then her story got worse.

 

_"Anita, what were you doing when you were nine? Well I was being raped by a demon. I was systematically corrupted for seven years. There were no right choices, all my choices were wrong! It's what they wanted, those who did this to me. Then... then I surprised them, created my sword. Took over hell as it were, then escaped only to find that I'd been in hell for seven years but only seconds had passed earth. I escaped with only two fifths of my soul left. I lived for four more years before... before I went mad and died"._

Dead? But if she died then how could she be here?

 

_"Then, five years later, that bastard Belasco wanted his toy back. Cut to the chase, he recreated me only I now lacked all of my soul. All! Then, because he found my form unsightly **HE FUCKING DESTORYED ME IN MIND AND BODY!** Somehow I survived it. Then, later I killed him. No, I did not sell my soul you vampire loving coffin bait fang banging monster fucking slut! You will apologize or else"! _

 

Damn I hadn't even been trying to poke at her. Mental note, don't poke at the Demon Lord. Hmm wonder how long I'll remember that little helpful hint. Knowing me, not long.

 

Yes I apologized. Profusely. Girl looked like she was about to lose it.

 

Suddenly it hit me why I could hear those screams around her and why my necromancy had liked her power so much. She'd died. You might say that she was still dead in that she lacked a soul.

 

My apology worked in that her horns faded away and so did the sword, but her eyes did not fully return. Sometimes they glowed.

 

We just set there for a few minutes watching what was left of my house burn. Then I tried another question. No don't know why I opened my mouth. But I asked anyway.

 

_"Who do I remind you of"?_

 

_"Ever kill someone you loved Miss Blake"?_

Oh boy. Big question. And yes I had. Ummm....

 

_"Vampire. She was a vampire. She'd rolled my mind. She was old, powerful. I didn't stand a chance. She... bound me. Made me hers. I burned the building she was sleeping in the next day. Burned her alive. God, how I screamed! Screamed and screamed and screamed. I... I was in shock for some time. She had made me love her, and I did, and yet I hated her too. Killing her maimed something in me. I'm... I'm not sure I've ever fully recovered from that"._

 

_"You reminded me of two people. First you reminded me of... me. Power, choices, decisions. I chose badly, made mistakes. Fled from what I'd been made into. You've... done better. Plus you have folks who love you even thought they know what you are. I... really envy you that. Second, you reminded me of... her, of... Cat. She was a vicious killer when need be, left a long trail of bodies behind her. She... raised me for two years in hell, only to fall and been enslaved to... Belasco as his toy and his pet. In the end she was his body and soul and in a fight to the death I ended up killing the woman who trained me in how to kill. Killed... killed what I loved the most. Back when I knew how to love"._

_"I like you Miss Blake. For some reason I thought you might..."._ She was examining her burned skin. _"Well ,I like you rather less now. I tried... tried to be nice. Should have known better"._

That stung. Wasn't very fair in many ways. What was I supposed to do? Trust a demon? Decided pointing that out would not win me any brownie points.

_"Who was Khufu"?_

She answered without asking a question of me.

 

_"Sorcerer. He was always better at the knowing vs. the doing. Book smart as it were. He was a bit of an information broker that many... entities dealt with. He made a deal with somebody I'm tracking down. I had some questions about the deal that he had made and he didn't want to answer. Well... he answered"._

We patched my house burn for a few more minutes. Everybody was unconscious except me, somehow I don't think that was a coincidence, apparently Magik had wanted a private conversation.

 

I thought about all that that had happened, in the rush of things there hadn't been time to properly assess the events. Then I remembered that she'd had me in the pyramid when she, not I, had raided Khufu using me. I had just been her instrument at that point. A tool. She'd had me and... let me go. Shit she'd let me go. I got so target fixated that I had forgotten that.

 

_"Shit, you let me go. In the rush of things I forgot that. Why? You had me. I knew you had me"._

 

Magik watched the fire. I wasn't sure if the fire in her eyes was reflected or real flames. She answered after about thirty seconds.

 

_"I died"._

_"An I was remade, and then destroyed in every way that mattered"._

_"I went mad, did things... hurt a child, stole a portion of her soul"._

_"I then awoke to what I had been. So wanted to be again"._

_"I choose a different path. One... that I hope will... be better"._

_"I don't know if I'll ever regain my soul"._

_"I do know that binding you into a slave is not the path that will result in what I want"._

_"I thought that by... "._ A pause.

_"What I thought doesn't matter any more. What is done is done"._

The remaining part of my roof caved in with a burst of sparks and flames.

_"Who... are you really? Who is Peter"?_ Rather sure I knew at this point, but I wanted her to say it.

Sirens in the distance. Now they finally show up.

 

Magik stood up and somehow produced an IPod from some back pocket. A rather singed looking IPod but it still played. She turned it on and I could hear Journey's wheel in the sky playing.

 

...

_Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'_

_I don't know where I'll be tomorrow_

_Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'_

...

 

She spoke. _"This is you mess to explain and clean up, not mine"._

 

She started walking back towards burning husk of my house.

 

_"Where are you going"?_

 

She turned around. _"I was going to peacefully leave this locality after we had eaten when you oh so annoying tried to bind me and inflicted your painfully tortures... and remembrances"._

_"Going where"?_

_"Somewhere else. Not of this world"._

_"Oh. Well, that's good then"._

She turned and resumed walking. She stopped all of a sudden but did not turn.

_"Peter was... is my brother. Before I was... made into... this"._ She resumed walking, but stopped again.

 

She then turned around, still had that tired look.

 

_"Anita, you have vampires and weres, many are involuntarily formed into what they are. What makes you think it stops just with them? I... screamed for a long long time. I suppose you are able to hear the part of me that still is"._

 

She turned around again and resumed walking. As she got closer to the flames she ignited. Not her former flaming form. No, this was like she was burning but with no smoke and you could still see her.

 

She walked right up to the burning mound of debris that used to be my home and her form dissipated into flames. I could have sworn that just as she reached the fire her form shifted, she became smaller, like she only a young child, say nine or ten.

 

With that her power flowed away and dissipated like fog evaporating on a sunny day and the screaming finally faded.

 

The last scream. Sounded horrible, worse even then the voice crying for her brother Peter. This one sounded like a young girl being....

 

No...

 

Not going there.

 

Don't want to think about what it sounded like. Know somehow that I'd be having bad dreams about that scream for a long time to come. Also knew then that I'd be talking to my Priest about this, don't think... don't think I really did the right thing.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, all done now. Final chapter. Hope you liked it. Anita is in another ongoing story called Cat's Cradle (she makes an appearance in a few chapters at the end, the chapters are not yet published at the time of this writing 1/13/16). 
> 
> I really liked writing this crossover. Have to see if I can come up with another Illyana/Anita plot (comment if you come up with one, always looking for good ideas).

 

**Part 25: Epilog1**

 

Well the fire trucks and the police showed up after Magik left; most folks also woke up after she departed. The one's that didn't ended up in the hospital and woke up later.

 

There was a lot of shouting once we explained the whole thermite thing. Things got a bit tense, meaning the cops were trying to decide if they should arrest us, but then Michael Twoyoungmen showed up and pulled some federal magic out of his hat as it were. Damn, things got calm fast after just a few phone calls. Don't know what Twoyoungmen did in the shadows, but he had major mojo.

 

I later found that my actions were approved by the Federal Marshals, even got a commendation in that I had prevented law enforcement fatalities by sacrificing my home. Which it turns out was now to be repaired at Federal expense due to the oddities that the paranormal branch field personnel was subject to. Guess I got my own personal Federal stimulus package as it were.

 

Michael's creepy friend showed up about noon. Some gaunt guy by the name of Stephen Strange. Weird dude. He and Shaman did some kind of private pow-pow and then spent an hour yelling at me tag team style. Rather annoying in that they wouldn't tell me what they were yelling at me about. I didn't have a need to know was their statement. They both drove off in a huff after a few hours.

 

Egypt was in an uproar. Khufu's pyramid had apparently blown up, gee who knew. Interesting in that tourism soared to record numbers afterwards.

 

We were poking around the wreckage of my home when Nathaniel found the gift that Magik had given me. Crap, it was unburned and still intact, wrappings and all.

 

**Two days later:**

 

Jean-Claude and I were cuddling in bed, in his bedroom deep within the Circus’s underground. It was post sex and post _ardeur_ feeding by me. Jason was on the far side of the bed snoring away with a rather blissful smile on his face. Jean-Claude was lying on his back with his head on a pillow. I was on his right side lying on my side with my breasts draped over his head. One breast covering mouth and nose. The other eyes and forehead.

 

Here’s a hint girls, guys love it after sex. Tends to lead to fun underboob play. Most guys are babies at heart and babies love boobs. But you need at least a C cup to pull it off.

 

 _“Do you think she’s ever coming back”_ I asked after a prolonged quiet time. No need to explain who she was.

 

Jean-Claude’s voice was a bit muffled underneath the breast. _“I do not know Ma petite. You offered a service to save yourself and us; and this... girl strikes me as one who remembers such oaths”._

_“Yea, I think so too”._

_“You are scared”?_

_“Damn tooting I am”._

_“Good. Such things should bring fear. She reminds me of... Well... Of the vampires that are tortured, tormented and utterly abused by their creators, the ones who lose everything and are driven mad. Base creatures they mostly become, given over to utter evil and survival. Nothing is left of what they were. But... sometimes one of these created monsters wakens, as it were, centuries later and realizes what they've become and... and are displeased. Mostly they ended themselves, the ones that don't... Well they can become obsessed with what they'd lost. They are some of the most... scary things I've ever met and in that I've lived oh so much longer then you ma petite that is saying something"._

_"But I suspect that is not all that concerns you Ma petite”._

I glanced over at a table on the far wall. Magik's gift, the one that had been wrapped in holiday penguin gift wrapping, lay unwrapped and reveled. It was a penguin caricature of Magik dressed up in her black and yellow spandex costume. The smiling penguin was holding up its left hand with two fingers in a V symbol. I grumbled about the gift.

 

_"My house is incinerated and explodes and yet that package, what was at ground zero by the way, was not damaged or burned in any way. And the penguin... It's a joke, a cute joke about herself. And the package was a message"._

_"Yes Ma petite, I believe I understand it. So understated, so European. I assume you comprehend its intent"._

I gave dramatic sigh, almost like the one's that Childe, no not Childe, like Magik had liked to give. At this point I was pretty sure that that had just been an act.

 

_"Yes. She knew. She knew that we were going to try and do something. We surprised her on how effective it was, but she still knew. She left this little gift to let me know after the fact. She needed me to swear to serve a service to her to give her open access to our world. She let us set ourselves up so that was the only way out for us. We did it to ourselves"._

_"Yes Ma petite, I think she was always five or ten steps ahead of us, ahead of everybody. Her planning was... superb"._

I lay there silent. I had been played and played well. Everybody had. Some of her... criticism also didn't sit well. If I reminded her of her prior self then in some ways she could be taken as a reflection of me if I went... bad. Mirrors show us our flaws, our reflected actions, reflections of things we may not like to see.

_"Are you going to keep it Ma petite"?_ Jean-Claude asked while somehow stroking a nipple with just an eyebrow.

_"I don't think I should get rid of it. Who knows what it really is"._

_"I think the penguin is just a gift. She was poking fun at herself, or at least attempting to. But I suspect the little birdie is not the only thing on your list of concerns"._

_“No_ ” I replied with a minor sigh. _“Yes, she scares me, she scares everybody who has a functioning brain cell. It’s her level of power and something that she said”._

Jean-Claude continued to stroke my breast with just his eyebrows and nuzzled it with his nose. _“Which was”?_

_“When I was thirteen my power raised my dead dog. If she is to be believed, at thirteen she created that sword and took over a hell domain with it. I believe that she really is only in her very late teens in many ways”._

_“And”?_

_“Many of us grow in power as we age. Especially vampires and apparently necromancers. Just what is she going to become as she grows older and likely stronger”?_

The breast nuzzling stopped.

 

“ _I do no know Ma petite. But now you’ve given us a new thing to be troubled about”._

 

**Part 25: Epilog2**

**Two months later:**

Got a postcard from Magik. One of those tourist photo postcards where somebody takes your photo and prints post card of it.

 

It was from Egypt.

 

Magik was standing in front of Khufu's pyramid with a smile on her face. Behind her was Ōyutaka Masachika, the big Japanese werelion. He had a grin on his face and was casually holding an umbrella over a person I recognized. The now not so new Master of Cairo; he looked very grumpy and I think sunburned.   Crap, he'd been elevated in power, he was a day walker now; one of the rarest of vampire powers.

 

I think I knew were Magik had dissipated some of the pyramid's power.

 

There was a note on the postcard.

 

_"Ōyutaka has heard of what Micah is doing with your_ _Lycanthrope Coalition thingie. He'd like to fly to the US to have a talk about it. He'll be in touch"._

 

Damn. I just know this is going to be trouble.


End file.
